Listen To The Mocking Bird

 

I’m dreaming now of Hally, sweet Hally, sweet Hally;
I’m dreaming now of Hally,
For the thought of her is one that never dies:
She’s sleeping in the valley, the valley, the valley;
She’s sleeping in the valley,
And the mocking bird singing where she lies.

Listen to the mocking bird, listen to the mocking bird,
The mocking bird still singing o'er her grave;
Listen to the mocking bird, listen to the mocking bird,
Still singing where the weeping willows wave.

Ah! well I yet remember, remember, remember,
Ah! well I yet remember,
When we gather’d in the cotton side by side;
’Twas in the mild September, September, September,
’Twas in the mild September,
And the mocking bird was singing far and wide.

Listen to the mocking bird, listen to the mocking bird,
The mocking bird still singing o'er her grave;
Listen to the mocking bird, listen to the mocking bird,
Still singing where the weeping willows wave.

Reader Note 1 (from Wikipedia): "Listen to the Mocking Bird" (1855) is an American folk song of the mid-19th century. The lyrics were by Septimus Winner, with the pseudonym "Alice Hawthorne", and the music was by Richard Milburn.  It is a mournful tale, with the singer dreaming of his sweetheart, who is dead and buried, with the mocking bird, whose song the couple once enjoyed, now singing over her grave. However, the melody is moderately lively. It was one of the most popular ballads of the 19th century and sold more than twenty million copies of sheet music.  It was popular during the American Civil War and was used as marching music. It was a particular favorite of  Abraham Lincoln , who said it was "as sincere as the laughter of a little girl at play."

Reader Note 2:  Now that a short spring seems finally to have arrived, we're spending more time outside in the early evenings, often adjourning to the terrace when work is done for a glass of wine and some pre-dinner conversation, early summing-up and planning for tomorrow.  A mocking bird there is our most proximate companion.  We often discuss, as is natural, what on earth it is the birds are saying?  As we do, never reaching any satisfactory, verifiable conclusion, the mocking bird checks in, repeats the evidence in his astonishing way and presumably states his own findings.  In every sense, he is both powerfully present and completely obscure.

Reader Note 3:  Mocking bird links in Yellow.