Changing Attitudes to Death

Nineteenth-Century Parlour Songs as Consolation Literature

Bibliographic Data

ID8895348
AuthorsColin B Atkinson (corresponding author), Jo B Atkinson
Year1992
Volume23
Issue2
Pages79-100
Publication date1992-09-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueCanadian Review of American Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0007-7720 • E-ISSN: 1710-114X
PublisherUniversity of Toronto Press Inc. (UTPress) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.3138/cras-023-02-03
OpenAlexW2014267912
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited20

In 1839, a new parlour song, "Near the Lake Where Droop'd the Willow,"1 became an immense success. Sung in homes and public concerts all over America, it long remained a favourite,2 and for the next twenty years the subject—that of a young man forever mourning his dead sweetheart—was the inspiration for numerous songs. Like all popular songs, "Near the Lake Where Droop'd the Willow" is incomplete without its lovely music to heighten its emotional impact, but the words show the pattern of ideas which so captivated its audience: On the lake where drooped the willow, long time ago, Where the rock threw back the billow, brighter than snow; Dwelt a maid, beloved and cherished, by high and low; But with autumn's leaf she perished, long time ago. Rock and tree and flowing water, long time ago; Bird and bee and blossom taught her, love's spell to know. While to my fond words she listened, murmuring low, Tenderly her blue eyes glistened, long time ago. Mingled were our hearts forever, long time ago; Can I now forget her? Never! No, lost one, no! To her grave these tears are given, ever to flow, She's the star I missed from heaven, long time ago. Between 1839 and the Civil War "Near the Lake" became the model for a flood of songs which focused on dead or (occasionally) dying girls (Tawa 134). Most of these songs had girls' names in the title, often with the word "grave" as well, as in "Nelly's Grave" and "Mary's Grave." While death has been a preeminent subject for poets as far back as written records go, these songs treated it in a new way, a way which paralleled contemporary changing attitudes to death. In the eighteenth century, songs about the deaths of young women (and young men) were written in third person about artificial, idealized creatures in a pastoral world (Tawa 133-34). But "Near the Lake," and the similar songs that followed, represented the perspective of the bereaved young man himself. His sweetheart was a real girl, closely associated with nature—indeed, a part of nature—which has taught her how to love. Living in a remote setting, she is surrounded by such organic elements as flowers, bees, birds, rocks, and flowing water, and she dies when the year dies, no other reason being necessary for her death. Her forlorn suitor, mourning at her grave, feels forever bereft. She is identified with heaven and angels, either before death or afterwards. That the images in "Near the Lake" had wide appeal is shown by their recurrences in the song's successors, evidence that they encapsulated popular attitudes.3

Art · Consolation · Favourite · Heaven · Literature · Spell · Willow · American Literature and Culture · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · History · Mormonism, Religion, and History · Philosophy

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