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Which song contains the famous lyric "We sang dirges in the dark"?

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dirge

American  

[durj] / dɜrdʒ /

noun

• dirges
  plural

1. 

   a funeral song or tune, or one expressing mourning in commemoration of the dead.

2. any composition resembling such a song or tune in character, as a poem of lament for the dead or solemn, mournful music.

   Tennyson's dirge for the Duke of Wellington.

3. a mournful sound resembling a dirge.

   The autumn wind sang the dirge of summer.

4. Ecclesiastical. the office of the dead, or the funeral service as sung.

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dirge British  

/ dɜːdʒ /

noun

1. a chant of lamentation for the dead

2. the funeral service in its solemn or sung forms

3. any mourning song or melody

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• dirgeful
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• dirges
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of dirge

1175–1225; Middle English dir ( i ) ge < Latin: direct, syncopated variant of dīrige (imperative of dīrigere ), first word of the antiphon sung in the Latin office of the dead (Psalm V, 8)

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Explanation

A dirge is a song of mourning, performed as a memorial to someone who’s died. As you might imagine, a dirge is usually quite sad. Another word with a similar meaning that you might know is “requiem.” The noun dirge comes from the Latin dirige, which means “direct,” and is the beginning of a prayer that translates as “Direct my way in your sight, O Lord my God.” Dirge can still have a religious meaning, but it can also be any sad and mournful song, poem, or hymn composed or performed in memory of someone who has died. You can also say that something mournful sounds like a dirge, using the word in a more poetic sense.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

dirge dirges

A crowd then gathered around the corpse, singing a dirge in a local Swahili dialect.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 8, 2026

Nobody wants to be subjected to one more triggering, off-key note of an Edwin Díaz dirge.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026

With Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah,” as a piano dirge.

From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026

Instead, they foundered in the breeze, squeezing out whatever bitter juice was left in a dirge that would prove to drag on for at least another week.

From Slate ● Feb. 23, 2026

The slow, endless clanging filled their room, as mournful as a dirge.

From "A Game of Thrones" by George R.R. Martin

Anchored on a near-orchestral soundstage, its 20 tracks ricochet from in-your-face punk dissonance to majestic broken-heart dirges, a lovely duet with St. Vincent, rootsy folk interludes and farfisa-rich lounge.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026

Orthodox Christian priests led a vigil in Brovary on Thursday, chanting dirges and burning incense as residents placed flowers and cuddly toys at a makeshift memorial near the nursery.

From Reuters ● Jan. 19, 2023

And the sun made an appearance as brass bands played mournful dirges.

From New York Times ● Sep. 19, 2022

And when you experienced Jason Molina’s languid lyricism, you might’ve felt deep kinship through his beautifully somber dirges — but you were too busy crying to think, “I should write songs like this!”

From Salon ● Aug. 9, 2019

At first she played “Yori Yori” and “Obi Mu O” endlessly and then she stopped, because the songs brought to her memories a finality, as though they were dirges.

From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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Related Words

• elegy
• hymn

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