Dirge: A Morphology of Mourning

Book II of The Morphology Series

In Dirge: A Morphology of Mourning, J. A. Gucci continues The Morphology Series using Absolute Composition-a formal system in which poetic meaning is generated through physical structure and system behavior rather than symbolic substitution.

Where Epithalamion concerns the morphology of union and Elegy concerns the morphology of loss, Dirge focuses on the morphology of mourning: the formal acts, objects, spaces, and utterances by which mourning is enacted. The sequence progresses through titles such as The Blow, The Wake, The Coffin, The Graveside, The Hollow, and The Dirge. Each poem is governed by a single, scientifically verifiable natural phenomenon-ranging from geothermal mud pots and marine snow to atmospheric refraction and amber fossilization.