The Unquiet Grave: Murder Ballads and Laments [Wattys Longlist 2018]

Author's Note: The Unquiet Grave

"The Unquiet Grave," is based on Child Ballad #78*. An alternate title for this ballad is "Cold Blows the Wind." This song put me in mind of Victorian mourning culture, which inspired the setting I used.

In this ballad, a mourner weeps over the grave of his (or her) true love. When the traditional period of mourning has passed, the ghost rises from the grave and asks whose weeping keeps her from her rest.

The young man professes continuing love for her and begs one final kiss. She refuses him, saying that her kiss will mean his death. She reminds him of the garden where they used to walk, drawing a parallel between a man or woman's mortal life and the fleeting beauty of a flower, and she encourages her grieving lover: 

"The stalk is withered dry, my love; so will our hearts decay. So make yourself content, my love, 'til Death calls you away." (Lyrics from Luke Kelly's version of the song.)

By comparing mortal bodies and mortal hearts with the flower, quick to fade, the ghost reminds her beloved that her own death was inevitable and that his will come by and by; perhaps she is encouraging him to make the most of his time on earth and to leave her behind now that he has mourned her passing. She may also be trying to tell him that her mortal heart has decayed; she cannot return to him the faithful, eternal love he has promised to her, for she has moved on to another world.

One part of this song which is equal parts morbid and powerful: the description of the ghost's kiss. "Clay-cold" or "lily-white" lips and a breath that is "earthly strong" or "heavy and strong" make it difficult to romanticize the physical reality of death. The mournful lover is confronted with the fact that the woman he loved is no longer and can no longer be the same. Her physical body has been buried for a year. Her ghost is not the rosy-cheeked woman he had loved but rather the spirit of a woman who has moved on from mortal life and mortal concerns. Were he to kiss her, he would be kissing what she has become, not what she was.

Playlist

The Unquiet Grave || Luke Kelly (featured)

The Unquiet Grave || Kate Rusby

Cold Blows the Wind (The Unquiet Grave) || The Morrigan

The Unquiet Grave || Joan Baez

The Unquiet Grave || Jean Ritchie

*In the late 19th century, Francis James Child published a collection of 305 ballads in a work titled The English and Scottish Popular Ballads. These songs are often referred to as "Child Ballads" and numbered according to where they appear in the collection. Many of the stories in this collection are based on folk songs that were studied and published by Child. For more on Child's anthology, you can type his name or "Child Ballads" into Google. I am using a record of the anthology available digitally at the following URL as a reference for this project: http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/child/index.htm