I'd have to argue that Scarborough Settler's...isn't a dirge, its the musings of a mildly depressed but alive Scottish emigrant to Ontario. (And if it's the Scarborough which is a large dreary suburb of Toronto now nicknamed "Scarberia", no wonder he's depressed, aside from a genetic predisposition...) I don't think they can be first person!

"Three Fishers", sung by Stan on the same album, pretty much qualifies, although its a romantic poem which I don't think is based on a true story.

My favorite dirges, both in the DT, are:

• "Rogues in a Nation" although its a dirge for a country rather than a person--but on the brighter side its got tons of bitterness and recrimination...

• "MacCrimmon's Lament" - which has a powerful economy of language and a brooding, stretched out melody, and clearly meets the textbook definition: Dick Gaughans' liner notes reveal that the tune is supposed to have been composed by the piper Donald MacCrimmon when he foretold his death (second sight eh), and the words were added by his sister after his death.

  Gaughan sings the chorus a differently than the DT version: his last two lines are:

  "Till comes the great (sad) day of doon and burnin
  MacCrimmon is home no more returning."

  Of course, it takes him about five minutes to sing that. He's the master deliverer of dirges, no doubt in my mind. Bill