‘Dead’ has a less pleasing sound than ‘gone’, which fits better in the phrase rhythmically: ‘gone’ flows into ‘but not forgotten’, while ‘dead’ requires more of an abrupt full caesura to deal with the ‘tuh’ sound at the end.
‘Dead’ has a less pleasing sound than ‘gone’, which fits better in the phrase rhythmically: ‘gone’ flows into ‘but not forgotten’, while ‘dead’ requires more of an abrupt full caesura to deal with the ‘tuh’ sound at the end.