A poem for LessWrong
PZ Myers posted this on his blog; it is very beautiful, and I think expresses the purpose (at any rate, one purpose) of LessWrong. It even offers a battle cry: “I am not resigned”.
Dirge without music
I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground
So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind:
Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely. Crowned
With lilies and laurel they go: but I am not resigned.
Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you.
Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust.
A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew,
A formula, a phrase remains—but the best is lost.
The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love -
They are gone. They have gone to feed the roses. Elegant and curled
Is the blossom. Fragrant is the blossom. I know. But I do not approve.
More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.
Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave
Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind:
Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave.
I know. But I do not approve. And I am not resigned.
This is timely! Now I have a place to post a link to this lovely antideathist comic.
The poem is by Edna St Vincent Millay. PZ’s post.
That’s a fine poem. I particularly liked the line, “They have gone to feed the roses.”
Wonderful.
This was in the quotes thread a month or two back. It’s an awesome poem.
Dude, I posted it this month.
Now I feel irrationally diminished :(
Looking, it turns out that it was your post of it this month that I remembered, and nobody had posted it before you. Sorry for making you feel diminished for no good reason.