by Oscar Wilde, 1881
Tread lightly, she is near
Under the snow,
Speak gently, she can hear
The daisies grow.All her bright golden hair
Tarnished with rust,
She that was young and fair
Fallen to dust.Lily-like, white as snow,
She hardly knew
She was a woman, so
Sweetly she grew.Coffin-board, heavy stone,
Lie on her breast,
I vex my heart alone
She is at rest.Peace, Peace, she cannot hear
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Lyre or sonnet,
All my life’s buried here,
Heap earth upon it.
‘Requiescat’ is from the Latin for ‘(may he or she) rest in peace.’ The poem was written for Wilde’s own sister. Isola Wilde was just nine years old when she died, while recovering from a fever, during a visit to Edgeworthstown Rectory, in Ireland. According to their mother, Lady Jane Wilde, the cause of Isola’s death was ‘a sudden effusion on the brain’.