This Quiet Dust Was Gentlemen and Ladies
death
time
lyric poem
melancholic
This quiet dust was gentlemen and ladies And lads and girls; Was laughter and ability and sighing, And frocks and curls; This passive place a summer’s nimble mansion, Where bloom and bees Fulfilled their oriental circuit, Then ceased like these.
This Quiet Dust Was Gentlemen and Ladies - meaning Summary
Mortality as Quiet Equalizer
The poem observes a burial place whose silent dust once contained gentlemen, ladies, lads and girls. It recalls past life—laughter, skill, sighs, clothing and curls—then shifts to a metaphor of a summer mansion where bloom and bees completed their circuit. The final image emphasizes cessation: both human bustle and nature’s summer activity have stopped, suggesting mortality as the common end of lively, varied existence.
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