To my Friend Jacob Teller, Esq.
"Little Tillie's Grave" (1860)
Song & Chorus
by Benjamin Russel Hanby, 1833-1867

1.
'Tis midnight gliding on her deep dark wings,
And the wind o'er my gentle Tillie sighs
And my heart trembles like the banjo strings
That I'm strumming near my Tillie where she lies.

CHORUS
Weep, zephyrs weep in the midnight deep,
Where the cypress and the vine sadly wave;
I have taken down my banjo for I could not sleep,
And I'm singing by my little Tillie's grave.

2.
When they took my Jennie from her sweet sweet child,
And her heart was withering with mine,
In my arms I bode glee for this island wild,
Lest the fate of thy mother should be thine.

(CHORUS)

3.
How sweet have the seasons glided by since then,
How happy each moment of the year.
Save a sigh that the lov'd one might come back again.
We have known not a sorrow nor a tear.

(CHORUS)

4.
But the swamp fever lighted on thy dark brows cheek,
And I knew death was knocking at the door;
How my full soul trembled with its bursting grief
When I saw that my Tillie was no more.

(CHORUS)

5.
Now the wild cat is wailing and the night hawk screams,
And the copperhead is hissing in the shade;
They shall come not hither to disurb thy dreams
For I'll watch where thy sleeping dust is laid.

CHORUS
Sleep Tillie, sleep! in the midnight deep,
Where the cypress and pine sadly wave,
Let my fingers keep strumming and my fond heart weep
Till I die by my little Tillie's grave.

And he died by little Tillie's grave.