to whinny-muir thou com'st at last

Here are links to the 20th-27th poems that T.E. Lawrence wrote out in Minorities, his pocket book of blank pages. They're all from his copy of the The Oxford Book of English Verse.

• To Helen, by Edgar Allan Poe
• Heraclitus, by William (Johnson) Cory
• A Lyke-Wake Dirge, anon. 17th Cent.
• The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, by Christopher Marlow
• To Marguerite, by Matthew Arnold
• The Pulley, by George Herbert
• Summer Dawn, William Morris

Of this group, the 17th c. ballad has the most interest. 'A Lyke-Wake Dirge' is a popular song which appears in Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border and other sources. It is described as a "charm sung ... while watching a dead body, previous to interment. The tune is doleful and monotonous, and, joined to the mysterious import of the words, has a solemn effect. The word sleet, in the chorus, seems to be corrupted from sell, or salt; a quantity of which, in compliance with a popular superstition, is frequently placed on the breast of a corpse. ... The dirge is included by John Aubrey in his Remaines of Gentilisme and Judaisms, 1686-7, ... prefaced thus: — 'The beliefe in Yorke-shire was amongst the vulgar (perhaps is in part still) that after the person's death the soule went over Whinny-moore, and till about 1616-1624 at the funerale a woman came (like a Praefica), and sang the following song.'

Here is the text:

This ae nighte, this ae nighte,
   — Every nighte and alle,
Fire and fleet and candle-lighte,
  And Christe receive thy saule.

When thou from hence away art past,
   — Every nighte and alle,
To Whinny-muir thou com'st at last;
  And Christe receive thy saule.

If ever thou gavest hosen and shoon,
   — Every nighte and alle,
Sit thee down and put them on;
  And Christe receive thy saule.

If hosen and shoon thou ne'er gav'st nane
   — Every nighte and alle,
The whinnes sall prick thee to the bare bane;
  And Christe receive thy saule.

From Whinny-muir when thou may'st pass,
   — Every nighte and alle,
To Brig o' Dread thou com'st at last;
  And Christe receive thy saule.

From Brig o' Dread when thou may'st pass,
   — Every nighte and alle,
To Purgatory fire thou com'st at last;
  And Christe receive thy saule.

If ever thou gavest meat or drink,
   — Every nighte and alle,
The fire sall never make thee shrink;
  And Christe receive thy saule.

If meat or drink thou ne'er gav'st nane,
   — Every nighte and alle,
The fire will burn thee to the bare bane;
  And Christe receive thy saule.

This ae nighte, this ae nighte,
   — Every nighte and alle,
Fire and fleet and candle-lighte,
  And Christe receive thy saule.

---

Some sources:

Minorities, by T E Lawrence; ed. by Jeremy Wilson (London, Cape, 1971).

The Oxford Book of English Verse HTML edition

Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, compiled by Walter Scott (W. Blackwood and sons, 1902)