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

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

Best answer: 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