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by Alfred Tennyson, Lord (1809 - 1892)

Dead, long dead
 (Sung text for setting by A. Somervell)
 See original
Language: English 
1.
Dead, long dead,
Long dead!
And my heart is a handful of dust,
And the wheels go over my head,
And my bones are shaken with pain,
For into a shallow grave they are thrust,
Only a yard beneath the street,
And the hoofs of the horses beat, beat,
The hoofs of the horses beat,
Beat into my scalp and my brain,
With never an end to the stream of passing feet,
Driving, hurrying, marrying, burying,
Clamour and rumble, and ringing and clatter,
And here beneath it is all as bad,
For I thought the dead had peace, but it is not so;
To have no peace in the grave, is that not sad?
But up and down and to and fro,
Ever about me the dead men go;
And then to hear a dead man chatter
Is enough to drive one mad.

 ... 

11.
O me, why have they not buried me deep enough?
Is it kind to have made me a grave so rough,
Me, that was never a quiet sleeper?
Maybe still I am but half-dead;
Then I cannot be wholly dumb;
I will cry to the steps above my head,
And somebody, surely, some kind heart will come
To bury me, bury me
Deeper, ever so little deeper.

Composition:

    Set to music by Arthur Somervell, Sir (1863 - 1937), "Dead, long dead", published 1898, stanzas 1,11 [ voice and piano ], from Cycle of Songs from Tennyson's Maud, no. 11, London: Boosey & Hawkes

Text Authorship:

  • by Alfred Tennyson, Lord (1809 - 1892), no title, appears in Maud, Part 2, no. 5

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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 115
Word count: 814

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