The Mad Maid's Song

 Good-morrow to the day so fair, 
   Good-morning, sir to you;
 Good-morrow to mine own torn hair
   Bedabbled with the dew.

 Good morning to this primrose too,
   Good-morrow to each maid
 That will with flowers the tomb bestrew
   Wherein my love is laid.

 Ah! woe is me, woe, woe is me!
   Alack and well-a-day!
 For pity, Sir, find out that bee
   Which bore my love away.

 I'll seek him in your bonnet brave,
   I'll seek him in your eyes;
 Nay now I think they've made his grave
   I' th' bed of strawberries.

 I'll seek him there; I know ere this
   The cold, cold earth doth shake him;
 But I will go, or send a kiss
   by you, sir, to awake him.

 Pray hurt him not; Though he be dead,
   He knows well who do love him,
 And who with green turfs rear his head,
   And who do rudely move him.

 He's soft and tender (pray take heed);
   With bands of cowslips bind him,
 And bring him home but 'tis decreed,
   That I shall never find him!

by Robert Herrick (1591-1674) , "The Mad Maid's Song"

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by David Arditti (1964-) , "The Mad Girl's Song", op. 9 no. 2, from Gather Ye Rosebuds, no. 2.
by David Leo Diamond (1915-2005) , "The Mad Maid's Song", 1937, rev. 1953.

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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