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Requiescat Tread 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.
Oscar Wilde
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Interpretation

What this quote means

This quote reflects on themes of mortality and the beauty of life, emphasizing the gentle remembrance of a lost loved one.

Oscar Wilde's poem 'Requiescat' meditates on the nature of death and the fading beauty of life. It captures the sorrow of losing someone dear while also contemplating their peaceful rest, encouraging a tender attitude towards the deceased. The imagery of snow and daisies conveys a contrast between life and death, suggesting that although the person is gone, their essence remains intertwined with nature.

Themes

DeathRemembrancePeaceLoveLoss

In practice

Example use cases

Using this quote at a memorial service to honor a loved one.

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