Fun Facts:
1) Roger Quilter wrote a number of English art songs during his life, and this was one of the most popular ones.
2) Many of Quilter?s songs were based off of well known poetry, and this song has lyrics from a song that the Feste sings in Act 2 and Scene 4 of William Shakespeare?s Twelfth Night.
3) This song expresses that unrequited love will lead to death and unhappiness, which is ironic in Twelfth Night, where Viola?s love for Orsino is unrequited, Orsino?s love for Olivia is unrequited, and Olivia?s love for Cesario (who is actually Viola in disguise) is unrequited.
"Come away, come away, death,
And in sad cypress let me be laid;
Fly away, fly away, breath;
I am slain by a fair cruel maid.
My shroud of white,
stuck all with yew,
O prepare it!
My part of death,
no one so true
Did share it.
Not a flower, not a flower sweet,
On my black coffin
let there be strown;
Not a friend, not a friend greet
My poor corpse, when my bones shall be thrown:
A thousand sighs to save,
Lay me, O where
Sad true lover never find my grave,
To weep there!"