An Analysis of Richard Dawkins 'Lament for Douglas'

The first 200 words of this essay...

"Science has lost a friend, literature has lost a luminary, the mountain gorilla and the black rhino have lost a gallant defender (he once climbed Kilimanjaro in a rhino suit to raise money to fight the cretinous trade in rhino horn), Apple Computer has lost its most eloquent apologist. And I have lost an irreplaceable intellectual companion and one of the kindest and funniest men I ever met. The day Douglas died, I officially received a happy piece of news, which would have delighted him. I wasn't allowed to tell anyone during the weeks I have secretly known about it, and now that I am allowed to it is too late.The sun is shining, life must go on, seize the day and all those clichés. We shall plant a tree this very day: a Douglas Fir, tall, upright, evergreen. It is the wrong time of year, but we'll give it our best shot.Off to the arboretum."

Lament for Douglas - Richard Dawkins, The Guardian (2001)

The extract is a form of obituary, more specifically an elegy as it is prose. Dawkins has entitled it 'Lament for Douglas' however, with the first word being associated predominantly with song