Pastoral Elegy

DESCRIPTION: "What sorrowful sounds do I hear Move slowly along in the gale?... Sweet Coroden's notes are all o'er, How lonely he sleeps in the clay." Caroline describes the flowers by his grave and plans to haunt the woods "Since Coroden hears me no more"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1835 (Missouri Harmony, according to Pound)
KEYWORDS: death burial rambling
FOUND IN: US(NE,MW)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
Pound-AmericanBalladsAndSongs, 95, pp. 203-204, "Pastoral Elegy" (1 text)
Flanders/Ballard/Brown/Barry-NewGreenMountainSongster, pp. 149-151, "Corydon and Caroline" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #4662
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Corydon and Phoebe" (theme)
NOTES [127 words]: This is clearly a folk remnant of the many Corydon-and-Phyllis/Phyllida/Chloris pastoral romances so common in the broadsides. I have not been able to find a broadside source, but this is nearly the only traditional survival of one of these pieces. (I thought the only one until Paul Stamler pointed out "Corydon and Phoebe.")
For which we should all be heartily thankful.
The song does appear, under the "Pastoral Elegy" title, in the 1835 edition of the "Missouri Harmony," and this, or some equivalent version, is probably ancestral to the text Pound collected. The Flanders version also appears to have its origin in print, in the 1840 Social Lyricist.
There are of course many other songs and poems called "Pastoral Elegy." Few if any are traditional- RBW
Last updated in version 3.5
File: LPnd203

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