“Pastoral Elegy”

Description

"What sorrowful sounds do I hear Move slowly along in the gale?... Sweet Coroden's notes are all o'er, How lonely he sleeps in the clay." Caroline describes the flowers by his grave and plans to haunt the woods "Since Coroden hears me no more"

Notes

This is clearly a folk remnant of the many Corydon-and-Phyllis/Phyllida/Chloris pastoral romances so common in the broadsides. I have not been able to find a broadside source, but this is nearly the only traditional survival of one of these pieces. (I thought the only one until Paul Stamler pointed out "Corydon and Phoebe.")

For which we should all be heartily thankful.

The song does appear, under the "Pastoral Elegy" title, in the 1835 edition of the "Missouri Harmony," and this, or some equivalent version, is probably ancestral to the text Pound collected. - RBW

Cross references

References

  1. LPound-ABS, 95, pp. 203-204, "Pastoral Elegy" (1 text)
  2. Roud #4662
  3. BI, LPnd203

About

Author: unknown
Earliest date: 1835 (Missouri Harmony)
Keywords: death burial rambling
Found in: US(MW)