Dingdong! The castle bell!
Farewell, my mother!
Bury me in the old churchyard
Beside my eldest brother.
My coffin shall be black,
Six angels at my back,
Two to sing and two to pray
And two to carry my soul away. 

Excerpt is "the song that Brigid had taught him" in Chapter I that appears on page 22 of the first edition of the novel.

Composition:

Set to music by David Leo Diamond (1915 - 2005), "Brigid's Song", published 1947 [ high voice and piano ]

Text Authorship:

• by James Joyce (1882 - 1941), no title, appears in A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, New York, B. W. Huebsch, first published 1916

See other settings of this text.

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Poom Andrew Pipatjarasgit [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2008-07-22
Line count: 8
Word count: 41