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Dirge

Life And Death
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

A mournful song or poem for the dead. Its sound and pace often imitate funeral music.

Detailed Definition
A dirge is a poem or song marked by slow rhythm, repetition, and a tone of solemn lamentation. Associated with funerals and public mourning, it may accompany an actual burial or create the atmosphere of one. Poets use dirge-like language to register communal grief, national tragedy, or the death of a beloved person. Heavy stresses, refrains, and dark natural imagery can make the verse feel processional, as though language itself were moving beside a coffin.
Example
Example in poetry:
A dirge often uses slow rhythm and repeated sounds to imitate a funeral procession; Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “A Dirge” mourns a dead beloved through images of coldness, darkness, and silence; Shakespeare’s song “Fear no more the heat o’ the sun” in “Cymbeline” functions like a dirge by offering consolation for the dead; A poet might write a dirge with a repeated refrain such as “Walk slowly, bells, walk slowly”
Additional Notes
A dirge emphasizes sound as well as grief. Slow rhythm, repetition, and low or solemn diction can create its funeral-like atmosphere.
Other Meanings of “Dirge”
Also Known As
Funeral Song Funeral Lament
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