Requiescat
Requiescat - meaning Summary
Mourning a Lost Sister
This short lyric registers a private, sorrowful farewell to a woman—believed to be Wilde’s dead sister—through restrained, intimate address. The speaker asks for quiet and gentleness, invoking snow, daisies and a coffin to compress life into simple natural images. The poem moves from delicate description of youth and purity to the speaker’s isolated grief and resigned acceptance, ending with the declaration that his life is buried along with her.
Read Complete AnalysesTREAD lightly, she is near Under the snow, Speak gently, she can hear The daisies grow. All her bright golden hair Tarnished with rust, She that was young and fair Fallen to dust. Lily-like, white as snow, She hardly knew She was a woman, so Sweetly she grew. Coffin-board, heavy stone, Lie on her breast, I vex my heart alone She is at rest. Peace, Peace, she cannot hear Lyre or sonnet, All my life's buried here, Heap earth upon it.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.