The Folk Show Treasure Hunt Song #9

Track 9 "Epitaph on an Infant"

Sunday 23rd August @ 8pm

Chris Bowden’s Folk Show / Radio Wimborne

Online live link: http://www.radiowimborne.co.uk

The Team:

Ange Hardy (vocals, guitar, whistle & harp)
Patsy Reid (cello)
Lukas Drinkwater (double bass)
Archie Churchill-Moss (diatonic accordion) 

The Song:

A poem set to music. I’ve not changed any of the words.

I sat down with the harp and played whilst reading the poem and it fitted together instantly. The second verse to Coleridge’s ‘Epitaph On An Infant’ was added many years after the first and apparently he never particularly liked the poem... but I love the hope and optimism within these words, and the idea that heaven waits. 

The Lyrics:

Ere sin could blight or Sorrow fade
Death came with friendly care
The opening bud to Heaven conveyed
And bade it blossom there

This lovely bud, so young so fair,
Called hence by early doom,
Just came to show how sweet a flower
In paradise would bloom.

Ere sin could blight or Sorrow fade
Death came with friendly care
The opening bud to Heaven conveyed
And bade it blossom there 

Notes From Coleridge:

Ere sin could blight or Sorrow fade
Death came with friendly care
The opening bud to Heaven conveyed
And bade it blossom there
- Epitaph On An Infant (Before September 1794) 

This lovely bud, so young so fair,
Called hence by early doom,
Just came to show how sweet a flower
In paradise would bloom.
- Epitaph On An Infant (revised early 1832)