Wednesday, January 14, 2009

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.

2 comments:

Lora said...

Hi Norma,

There is a famous musical composition called Threnody for the victims of Hiroshima-- By Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki. Very graphic sound.

Anonymous said...

Murray sez:
Sorrowful emotions blended with the threnody as the black procession wound it's way through the streets New Orleans. Whew!