Help me find a depressing poem!

September 30, 2008 7:59 PM

I'm looking for a longer poem about death/dying that I read some time ago. IIRC, I found it via the "Poetry Sunday" series on the Daylight Atheism blog, but upon a little research, it was not one of the poems featured there. Perhaps it is by one of the same authors?

I seem to remember the poem having the word "procession" in it and being relatively long (ie, the equivalent of ~4 written paragraphs or so), but other than that, I cannot recall much. My GoogleFu (TM) is failing me.

posted by aheckler to Writing & Language (6 answers total)

Maybe you're thinking of Sunday Morning by Wallace Stevens?
posted by iconomy at 9:08 PM on September 30, 2008

From the poem:

The pungent oranges and bright, green wings
Seem things in some procession of the dead
posted by iconomy at 10:22 PM on September 30, 2008

No, that doesn't seem to be it...
posted by aheckler at 4:03 AM on October 1, 2008

Found it! It was William Cullen Bryant's "Thanatopsis".

Doesn't have the word "procession" in it, but it's still an awesome poem. Thanks for the help iconomy!
posted by aheckler at 4:07 AM on October 1, 2008

Perhaps known, but of interest... Bryant was around 18 when he wrote/published that poem.
posted by wg at 5:12 AM on October 1, 2008

You were right, it's depresssing ;)

Glad you found it!
posted by iconomy at 8:52 AM on October 1, 2008