Little Nell's Funeral [DICKENS poem set to music]
Channel: tobydarling
Date: 09/12/2019

Little Nell's Funeral - Poem by Charles Dickens

D Dmaj7
And now the bell, - the bell 
F/A G/A A
She had so often heard by night and day 
D Dmaj7
And listened to with solemn pleasure, 
F/A G/A
E'en as a living voice, - 
F G Am7
Rung its remorseless toll for her, 
Am7
So young, so beautiful, so good. 

Decrepit age, and vigorous life, 
And blooming youth, and helpless infancy, 
Poured forth, - on crutches, in the pride of strength 
And health, in the full blush 
Of promise, the mere dawn of life, - 
F G Am
To gather round her tomb. Old men were there, 
C G 
Whose eyes were dim 
Am
And senses failing, - 
F G Am
Grandames, who might have died ten years ago, 
C G Am D
And still been old, - the deaf, the blind, the lame, 
Em 
The palsied, 
D
The living dead in many shapes and forms, 
C G Em
To see the closing of this early grave. 
F G
What was the death it would shut in, 
Am Em Am
To that which still could crawl and keep above it! 

Along the crowded path they bore her now; 
Pure as the new fallen snow 
That covered it; whose day on earth 
Had been as fleeting. 
Under that porch, where she had sat when Heaven 
In mercy brought her to that peaceful spot, 
F G Am7
She passed again, and the old church 
Am7
Received her in its quiet shade. 

They carried her to one old nook, 
Where she had many and many a time sat musing, 
And laid their burden softly on the pavement. 
The light streamed on it through 
The colored window, - a window where the boughs 
Of trees were ever rustling 
In the summer, and where the birds 
Sang sweetly all day long. 

Charles Dickens

D: xx023x
Dmaj7: xx022x
F/A: x032 xx
G/A: x054xx

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