Today's new word is THRENODY

from threnos (thray'-nos), from the base of throeo; wailing -- lamentation. A song of lamentation; a dirge; a funeral song; a lament. There is actually a blog called, "Threnody of an ethereal dreamer" written by an 18 year old Malaysian girl! Now why would her life be one long funeral song?

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote a poem, Threnody, after the death of his 5 year old son (excerpt)

O child of Paradise!
Boy who made dear his father's home
In whose deep eyes
Men read the welfare of the times to come;
I am too much bereft;
The world dishonored thou hast left;
O truths and natures costly lie;
O trusted, broken prophecy!
O richest fortune sourly crossed;
Born for the future, to the future lost!

William Shakespeare wrote a poem, Threnos.

Threnos.

Beauty, truth, and rarity,
Grace in all simplicity,
Here enclosed in cinders lie.
Death is now the phoenix` nest;
And the turtle`s loyal breast
To eternity doth rest,
Leaving no posterity:
`T was not their infirmity,
It was married chastity.
Truth may seem, but cannot be;
Beauty brag, but `t is not she;
Truth and beauty buried be.
To this urn let those repair
That are either true or fair;
For these dead birds sigh a prayer.