Folk & Traditional Song Lyrics

Home | Main Menu | Folk Song Lyrics | A B1 B2 B3 B4 C1 C2 C3
D1 D2 E F G H I J K L1 L2 M N O P Q R S1 S2 S3 S4 T U V W1 W2 XYZ | Search

Come Away, Come Away, Death

Come Away, Come Away, Death
(Shakespeare, Vaughan Williams)

Come away, come away, death,
And in sad cypress let me be laid;
Fly away, fly away, breath;
I am slain by a fair cruel maid.
My shroud of white, stuck all with yew,
O prepare it!
My part of death, no one so true
Did share it.

Not a flower, not a flower sweet,
On my black coffin let there be strown;
Not a friend, not a friend greet
My poor corpse, when my bones shall be thrown:
A thousand sighs to save,
Lay me, O where
Sad true lover never find my grave,
To weep there!

(Text by William Shakespeare (1564-1616), from Twelfth
Night, Act II, scene 4 Set by Vaughan Williams in 1909)

JIB
oct99