The Curfew Tolls the Knell

The text for this song comes from the first two verses of 'Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard' by Thomas Gray (1716-1771). The poem was originally twenty-nine verses with a three verse Epitaph.

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.

Now fades the glimmering landscape on the sight,
And all the air a solemn stillness holds,
Save where the beetle wheels his droning flight,
And drowsy tinklings lull the distant folds.

The curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea
The ploughman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.