Changing Attitudes to Death: Nineteenth-Century Parlour Songs as Consolation Literature

Canadian Review of American Studies Volume 23, Number 2, Winter 1993, pp. 79-100 79 Changing Attitudes to Death: Nineteenth-Century Parlour Songs as Consolation Literature ColinB. Atkinson and Jo B. Atkinson 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 allpopular songs, "Near the Lake Where Droop' d the Willow"is incomplete without its lovely musicto heighten its emotional impact, but the words show the pattern of ideaswhich 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! 80 Canadian Review of American Studies To her grave these tears are given, ever to flow, She's the star I missed from heaven, long time ago. Between 1839and the CivilWar "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 flowingwater, 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 Death was a common subject in nineteenth-century literature. It was a major theme of the best poets, such as Emily Dickinson and William Cullen Bryant, and the popular versifiers, like Lydia Sigourney, as well as novelists and other writers.4 Ann Douglas (Feminization 242) has proposed that there was a new literary form, "consolation literature," an "enormously popular genre [which] included obituary poems and memoirs, mourners' manuals, prayer guidebooks, hymns, and books about heaven." 5 We will be examiningthose popular parlour songs which have as their theme the death of young women,beginningwith "Near the Lake" and ending just before the CivilWar, seeing them as another form of consolation literature. We ,have chosen to examine these songs because they reflect the changing attitudes to death and the afterlife that were developing in nineteenth-century America in a medium which mirrors popular culture, Colin B. Atkin.son & Jo. B. Atkin.son I 81 rather than literary culture. The serious poetry about death of such writers asBryant,Poe, or Dickinson reflects nineteenth-century attitudes but filtered through a poetic vision and the literary traditions of America and Great Britain. Similarly, the sermons and other devotional material reflect the theological and philosophical education of the writers working upon contemporary ideas. On the other hand, the parlour song-indeed, popular culture...