Dead Dialogue + 

1st Corpse + 

I would now that the sweet light of the sun + 

Might once again shine down upon my face; + 

So weary am I of my rottenness. + 

2nd Corpse + 

Rejoice that now at least thou art done with life; + 

This thing shall nevermore return. + 

1st Corpse + 

At last + 

My body is aweary of the tomb; + 

It is a hundred years since in the grave + 

I have lain down between four narrow walls, + 

Shut up with putrid darkness and the worm. + 

There is no flesh upon my body now, + 

That was so long a-rotting; on my shelf + 

Here am I now nothing but stinking bones, + 

That have had life beneath the face of the sun. + 

3rd Corpse + 

I am not yet utterly putrified, + 

And the worms yet within my flesh abound; + 

I do repent me that I did not learn + 

What life was, while I liv’d beneath the sun⁠— + 

At least then I might think of what I had done; + 

But I am rotten, and I have not liv’d. + 

1st Corpse + 

I would that I might leave this place of ordure + 

And look once more upon the face of the world, + 

Where the sun is. + 

2nd Corpse + 

O foolish ragged-bones, + 

Wouldst thou show forth thy dripping excrements, + 

And shredded rottenness to the face of day?⁠— + 

Stink and be still, and leave us here in peace. + 

1st Corpse + 

Envy me not, O stench, slop-face, dung-eyes; + 

My bones are clean and dry as the tomb’s walls, + 

And stink not; as for thee, thou art a sink. + 

2nd Corpse + 

Envy me not, thou, that I am so sweet + 

The black worms love me; hungry were that worm + 

That on thee preys. + 

4th Corpse + 

Be silent, both ye dead and rotten things; + 

Lo I, that was unburied yesterday, + 

Am fair and smooth and firm, and almost sweet; + 

If that I were not dead, one might me love. + 

3rd Corpse + 

Is it so sweet a thing, this love, this love? + 

2nd Corpse + 

Thy lips are green for kissing, and streaks of black + 

Streak over thee where the worms have not yet been! + 

4th Corpse + 

Ha, ha, I know wherefore thou speakest so: + 

Because thy torture is too great for thee, + 

And the worms’ gnawing, and thy body’s rottenness, + 

And the rottenness in thy bones and in thy brain! + 

1st Corpse + 

O beautiful, O dead, O spit upon, + 

He speaketh well that is but lately dead; + 

Thy flesh lies all along thee like green slime, + 

O pudding gravied in thine own dead sauce! + 

2nd Corpse + 

Rotten one! + 

1st Corpse + 

Dung-heap! + 

2nd Corpse + 

Dead one! + 

1st Corpse + 

Beast! beast! beast! + 

Therefore perhaps, thou art so early dead? + 

2nd Corpse + 

They say that those thou lovedst were not men, + 

O goat-face⁠—Shall I say what was thy death? + 

4th Corpse + 

Come, come, my brothers, be not so slanderous; + 

We have all been the same upon the earth. + 

3rd Corpse + 

Thou sayest true, new brother. + 

1st Corpse + 

Thou sayest true. + 

2nd Corpse + 

Aside. + 

I shall not suffer anything any more; + 

I have left all that; I am evermore releas’d; + 

I shall not struggle and suffer any more; + 

This seemeth strange and very sweet to me; + 

And I shall grow accustom’d to the worms. + 

5th Corpse + 

Rejoice not thou, that thou art fallen + 

Into a pit where people leave their dung; + 

There is no reason here for any joy. + 

Sepulchre + 

Be silent, now, ye spindle-shankèd dead! + 

Ye will learn to be silent when y’are here + 

For a long time; ye always spout and roar, + 

At first, before the time of rottenness; + 

But so I suppose it must be⁠—y’are not the first, + 

And ye shall not be the last; so fast i’ the world, + 

So eagerly they are begotten, and they die, + 

And they are begotten again; just for this end + 

Hideously propagated evermore. + 

A voice above singing + 

Golden is the sunlight, + 

When the daylight closes, + 

Golden blow the roses + 

Ere the spring is old; + 

All thy hair is golden, + 

Falling long and lowly + 

Round thy bosom holy; + 

And thy heart is of fine gold! + 