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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

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)

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

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

From Salon ● Jul. 5, 2026

Its internal speaker plays a rumbling soundtrack that sends the drumsticks attached to the instrument flittering, giving the sense of a ghostly presence tapping out a brooding dirge.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 14, 2026

It might be time to pause the funeral dirge for software and services stocks.

From Barron's ● Feb. 19, 2026

The mystery, along with Lightfoot’s mournful and eminently meme-able dirge, created fertile soil for a cultural resurgence today—one driven largely by Gen Z and millennials who love mythologizing working-class tragedies and Midwestern nostalgia.

From Slate ● Nov. 10, 2025

“You’re much better than that wretched Lillian Woodward. She hasn’t played anything faster than a dirge since the Civil War.”

From "Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy" by Gary D. Schmidt

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

Latasha’s story went on to inspire films and novels and furious dirges by Tupac and Ice Cube, and has filled countless newspaper columns.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 1, 2021

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

Related Words

• elegy
• hymn