Lay a garland on my hearse,
  Of the dismal yew,
Maidens, willow branches [bear]1,
  Say I died true.

My love was false, but I was firm
  [From my hour of birth;]2
Upon my buried body lie
  Lightly, [gentle]3 earth.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Pearsall, A. Taylor: "wear"
² omitted by Pearsall and A. Taylor
³ Pearsall, A. Taylor: "thou gentle"

Text Authorship:

• by Francis Beaumont (1584 - 1616), "Aspatia's song", appears in The Maid's Tragedy, first published 1610 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
• by John Fletcher (1579 - 1625), "Aspatia's song", appears in The Maid's Tragedy, first published 1610 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by Juriaan Andriessen (1925 - 1996), "Aspatia's song", published 1960 [ tenor and piano ], from 4 English songs, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Geoffrey Bush (1920 - 1998), "Lay a Garland on my Hearse", 1944 [ baritone and piano ], from Five Spring Songs, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Phyllis Campbell (1891 - 1974), "Aspatia's song", copyright © 2018 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "Aspatia's song", 1920 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by John Jeffreys (1927 - 2010), "Aspatia's song" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Ernest John Moeran (1894 - 1950), "Willow song", R. 69 no. 2 (1934), published 1934 [ voice and piano ], from Four English Lyrics, no. 2, Winthrop Rogers [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Charles Hubert Hastings Parry, Sir (1848 - 1918), "Lay a garland on my hearse", 1876-1901, published 1902, from English Lyrics, Fifth Set, no. 4 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Robert Lucas Pearsall (1795 - 1856), "Lay a garland", 1869 [ chorus ], partsong; note: replace 'I' with 'her' along with other pronouns. [sung text checked 1 time]
• by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "Lay A Garland", op. 484 (1956) [sung text not yet checked]
• by Peter Sculthorpe (b. 1929), "Aspatia’s Song", W26 (1947) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Arthur Somervell, Sir (1863 - 1937), "Lay a garland", published c1915 [ voice and piano ], from Album of Seven Songs, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Adam Taylor (b. 1981), "Lay a garland", op. 27 (2002) [ duet for soprano and alto with piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Peter Warlock (1894 - 1930), "A sad song", 1922, published 1923, from Peterisms: first set, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• DUT Dutch (Nederlands) (Nicolaas (Koos) Jaspers) , copyright © 2009, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• GER German (Deutsch) (Anonymous/Unidentified Artist)

Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

This text was added to the website: 2003-11-09
Line count: 8
Word count: 43