Song | The heath this night must be my bed | The heath this night must be my bed

The heath this night must be my bed

Language: English

Our translations: ITA

The heath this night must be my bed,
The bracken curtain for my head,
My lullaby the warder's tread,
  Far, far, from love and thee, Mary;
To-morrow eve, more stilly laid,
My couch may be my bloody plaid,
My vesper song, thy wail, sweet maid!
  It will not waken me, Mary!

I may not, dare not, fancy now
The grief that clouds thy lovely brow,
I dare not think upon thy vow,
  And all it promised me, Mary.
No fond regret must Norman know;
When bursts Clan-Alpine on the foe,
His heart must be like bended bow,
  His foot like arrow free, Mary.

A time will come with feeling fraught!
For, if I fall in battle fought,
Thy hapless lover's dying thought
  Shall be a thought on thee, Mary.
And if returned from conquered foes,
How blithely will the evening close,
How sweet the linnet sing repose,
  To my young bride and me, Mary!

About the headline (FAQ)

Confirmed with The Lady of the Lake. A Poem. By Walter Scott, Esq. The fourth edition. Edinburgh: Printed for John Ballantyne and Co. Edinburgh; and Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, and W. Miller, London. 1810, pages 127-128.

Text Authorship:

by Walter Scott, Sir (1771 - 1832), "Song", appears in The Lady of the Lake, in 3. Canto Third. The Gathering., no. 23, first published 1810 [author's text checked 2 times 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 Clara Kathleen Rogers (1844 - 1931), "The heath this night must be my bed", op. 22 (Three Songs) no. 3, published 1885 [ voice and piano ], Boston : Arthur P. Schmidt and Co. [sung text not yet checked]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Adam Storck (1780 - 1822) , "Sang", appears in Das Fräulein vom See, in 3. Dritter Gesang. Das Aufgebot., first published 1819 ; composed by Fanny Hensel, Franz Peter Schubert.
Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist [an adaptation] ; composed by Johann Peter Cornelius D'Alquen.

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

Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Peter Rastl [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2003-11-07
Line count: 24
Word count: 154