The night before her execution, Anne Boleyn said to have written a dirge, Oh Death, Rock Me Asleep. The authorship is not completely certain – some believe it may have been written by George Boleyn, others by an anonymous author channeling the emotions Anne would have felt the night before her execution. I have always believed it was Anne…it’s part of the legend.
The version I have included here is the one from Agnes Strickland’s biography of Anne, which I first read as a teenager. There are other versions that have each stanza end with “There is no remedy” but I don’t like those as much…I don’t think they are quite as poignant (though I admit that they may just be less familiar). Regardless, please allow yourself to be swept away by the words, it is a masterful poem…
O death! rock me asleep,
Bring on my quiet rest,
Let pass my very guiltless ghost
Out of my careful breast.
Ring out the doleful knell;
Let its sound my death tell –
For I must die,
There is no remedy,
For now I die!
My pains who can express?
Alas! They are so strong,
My dolour will not suffer strength
My life for to prolong!
Alone in prison strange
I wait my destiny;
Woe worth this cruel hap, that I
Should taste this misery!
Farewell, my pleasures past,
Welcome, my present pain,
I feel my torments so increase
That life cannot remain.
Sound now the passing bell;
Rung is my doleful knell;
For its sound my death doth tell:
Death doth draw nigh;
Sound the knell dolefully,
For now I die!
SOURCES:
Agnes Strickland, Lives of the Queens of England, Volume IV
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