Millay’s “Dirge” is a blunt funeral song for a young woman who has died. The speaker tells the boys and girls who loved her to do their weeping now, because everything they loved about her lies here, buried. What made her herself was not just sweetness but a difficult, vivid edge: the “arrogant brow” and the “withering tongue.” Death has chastened, or quieted, all of that. The mood is somber and a little unsettling, since mourning is mixed with honest recognition of the dead girl’s sharp tongue. The repeated call to weep, and the instruction to sing and bring wreaths, make the poem feel like a ritual. Calling her a “playmate perished young” reminds us how early death came. There is grief, but it is clear-eyed: a fierce, spirited person is gone, and the living are left to mark the loss.
Dirge — Summary
Boys and girls that held her dear, Do your weeping now; All you loved of her lies here. Brought to earth the arrogant brow, And the withering tongue Chastened; do your weeping now. Sing whatever songs are sung, Wind whatever wreath, For a playmate perished young, For a spirit spent in death. Boys and girls that held her dear, All you loved of her lies here.