The words of sorrow and mourning in Mormon 6:16–22, which can easily bring tears to the eyes, can be seen literarily as a powerful formal lamentation. The text could well have been sung or chanted as a dirge. It deserves and rewards a more careful analysis than it has previously been given.
As background, in ancient Syrian literature, going back to the Assyrian Empire and beyond into the Sumerian literature, we find tablets lamenting over the destruction of a city or the destruction of a temple. This became a genre, a type of writing. In early cultures, mourning and lamentation was serious and very public. Usually women, but sometimes men, would mourn for days and would cry aloud, putting expression to their deep sorrow. Under Jewish law, the men were required to mourn in a slightly different way; they tore their clothes, both the outer and inner garments. Jewish law even went so far as to say how long the tear had to be in order for it to qualify as a properly rent garment. In all these cases, mourning was a formalized experience.
In general, ancient funeral lamentations had developed patterns and styles. In the Iliad, for example, there are about a dozen passages in which Homer’s epic poetry follows a standard pattern as the women mourn and lament over the death of Hector and other heroes. Both Homer and Mormon understood the lamentable side of intransigent warfare. Mormon’s lament seems spontaneous, but he has had plenty of previous opportunities to mourn the deaths of large numbers of his people. No doubt, due to the uniqueness of this final demise of his entire nation, Mormon’s lamentation is somewhat unique, but Mormon probably had cried out in bereavement on many other occasions as well. This final dirge manifests the confident cadences and heart-rending expressions of an aged and lyrically experienced prophetic leader.
And my soul was rent with anguish, because of the slain of my people, and I cried:
O ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord!
O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you!
Behold if ye had not done this, ye would not have fallen.
But behold, ye are fallen,
and I mourn your loss.
O ye fair
sons and daughters,
ye fathers and mothers,
ye husbands and wives,
[O] ye fair ones
How is it that ye could have fallen!
But ye are gone
And my sorrows cannot bring your return.
And the day soon cometh that your mortal must put on immortality
And these bodies which are now moldering in corruption must soon become incorruptible bodies.
And then ye must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ
To be judged according to your works
And if it so be that ye are righteous,
then are ye blessed with your fathers who have gone before you.
O that ye had repented before this great destruction had come upon you.
But behold, ye are gone,
and the Father, yea, the Eternal Father of heaven, knoweth your state;
and he doeth with you according to his justice and mercy.
Patterns and recurring themes, are discernable in these typical formulaic military lamentations in the Iliad, and some of the themes that appear there are also identifiable in Mormon’s speech.
Like the dirges in the Iliad, Mormon’s speech, begins with a common verb of speaking: to cry out. Then there are words that specifically mark the speech as a personal lament. Mormon, for example, makes it clear that he personally is mourning by saying explicitly, “I mourn your loss.” He also says, “My soul was rent with anguish.” He is tearing his soul, perhaps when he rends or tears his coat, which would have been a customary outward manifestation of the inward spiritual tearing of his soul.
Mormon’s lament has a tripartite structure, which was a common feature of the way ancient people mourned. For example, in Syrian literature—and this goes back into the Assyrian Empire and beyond that into Sumerian literature—we find clay tablets that are written lamenting over the destruction of a city or the destruction of a temple, and because of their standard styles and formats, scholars refer to them as a genre, a particular type of writing.
Those laments often have a tripartite structure in which they begin with a personal address, the mourner then speaks to the dead person in the direct vocative case, often characterized by the word “O.” Likewise, Mormon begins, “O, ye fair ones …”
Then at the end, there is usually praise for the dead, lavishly offered and frequently enhanced by repetition. Likewise, Mormon says, “Oh, ye fair ones, ye fair ones,” and four times, he refers to how good they could have been. Additionally, these ancient laments often contain an element of reproach, and Mormon likewise cries out, “How could ye have departed … ?” and “How could ye have rejected … ?” In other words, how could this have happened?
Typically, in these laments there is a comparison between the living people and the deceased, extending sometimes to a comparison of the living and the dead in general. Often, the mourner expresses an unfulfilled wish. There is a contrast between the present and the future, and concerns about the future. In particular, the women express concern about what will happen to them now that their man is gone. Will they be taken captive? What will happen next?
The Greek dirges often contain an element of bravado in which the mourners say, “We will get back at you!” “We will take vengeance; we will see that your debt is reconciled.” That element does not exist in Mormon’s mourning. True to his spirit, Mormon does not allow himself to feel that kind of revenge. Just as he had required his people to leave vengeance in the hands of God, Mormon ends his lament by also recognizing that God holds the ultimate power to judge what is to be done.
With a background of those elements, one can feel the power of and sense the deep emotion eloquently expressed in this terse but complete expression of lamentation. In Mormon 6:16–20, Mormon first addresses the dead:
O ye fair ones, how could ye have departed from the ways of the Lord! O ye fair ones, how could ye have rejected that Jesus, who stood with open arms to receive you! Behold, if ye had not done this, ye would not have fallen. But behold, ye are fallen, and I mourn your loss. O ye fair sons and daughters, ye fathers and mothers, ye husbands and wives, ye fair ones, how is it that ye could have fallen! But behold, ye are gone, and my sorrows cannot bring your return.
Then, as in the traditional tripartite structure, after addressing the dead, Mormon’s lamentation turns to what is called a central narrative or comment, and then at the end, the third part will return to direct speech directed at the deceased. In Mormon’s speech, we have exactly those parts too. The central narrative is in Mormon 6:21:
And the day soon cometh that your mortal must put on immortality, and these bodies which are now moldering in corruption must soon become incorruptible bodies; and then ye must stand before the judgment-seat of Christ, to be judged according to your works; and if it so be that ye are righteous, then are ye blessed with your fathers who have gone before you.
Then follows a return to a final direct address in 6:22:
O that ye had repented before this great destruction had come upon you. But behold, ye are gone, and the Father, yea, the Eternal Father of heaven, knoweth your state; and he doeth with you according to his justice and mercy.
Ancient Elegiac Structures | Mormon’s Formal Elegy |
|---|---|
Formulaic speech introduction | My soul rent with anguish (cf. tearing of the garment) |
Common verb of speaking | I cried |
Words that specifically mark the speech as a personal lament | I mourn your loss |
Poetical, chant-able, refrains, antitheticals, parallelisms | |
Direct address to the dead | O ye fair ones |
Praise for the dead, lavish, repeated | Fair ones, 4x (but Mormon cannot recommend them to God) |
Reproach for the mourned | How could ye have rejected How could ye have fallen |
Comparison to other characters living or dead | Blessed are ye with your fathers who have gone before you |
Common fate of the mourner and the deceased | Mormon knows he too will die and his death is anticipated by the audience |
Unfulfilled wish by the mourner | If you had not done this, ye would not have fallen My sorrows cannot bring you back, i.e., as much as I might wish |
Contrast between past and present | How could ye have departed, in the past you were righteous |
Contrast between present and future | Corruption to incorruption, immortal to mortal |
Concern about the future | God knows your state and he will deal with you |
Concern about captivity or death of women | Explicit mention of daughters, mothers, wives |
Masculine alternative is retributive or compensatory action | To be judged according to your works, talionic justice, justice or mercy Mormon leaves the vengeance to God, as he has told his soldiers they should do |
The repetition and structure here are striking. When one is in the deepest moments of sorrow and grief, not much can be said. However, Mormon has embraced beautifully what can be said in this instance, as he looks back on not only the thousands who have died right before him, but on the lost potential of this great nation now ending. This is a sublime elegy.
It may be enlightening to read a few such lamentations found in the book of Lamentations in the Old Testament, which was written by Jeremiah lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem. That book is four chapters long and shares some of the same characteristics described here. However, Mormon had neither resources nor time to make his parting words as long as the book of Lamentations, so his is considerably more concise.
The other big difference is that Jeremiah ended his mournful lamentation with an optimistic prophecy, because he knew that the Jews would be brought back to Jerusalem. Jeremiah had even purchased some of the family property from his nephew in anticipation of the return. Mormon, however, knew that his people were not coming back, and he closed the record with his final and solemn farewell to his people.
Book of Mormon Central, “How Did Mormon React to Seeing His People Slain? (Mormon 6:17),” KnoWhy 232 (November 16, 2016).