死生之事较寻常景色更触动心灵，由此，挽歌天然的具备深刻肃穆之气质，凡佳作，无不令人扼腕击节。

其一 《挽歌为沃尔夫伯爵冯·卡尔克罗伊而作》节选——里尔克

命运是怎样地

在诗中一去永不复返

它是怎样地，在诗中成为模糊的影象

所有发生过的事物

总是先于我们的判断

我们无从追赶，难以辨认

不要胆怯

如果有死者与你擦肩而过

同他们，平静地对视吧

无数人的忧伤，使你与众不同

我们目睹了

发生过的事物

那些时代的豪言壮语

并非为我们所说出

有何胜利可言

挺住就是一切

其二 《Funeral Blues》——Wystan Hugh Auden

Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,

Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,

Silence the pianos and with muffled drum

Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead

Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,

Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,

Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,

My working week and my Sunday rest,

My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;

I thought that love would last for ever; I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;

Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;

Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood,

For nothing now can ever come to any good.

写的是挽歌，写的简直不是挽歌。