"Tie Crape on the Door, Willie's Dead!" (1875)
Song and Chorus
Words and Music by
William Shakespeare Hays, 1837-1907

New York: J. L. Peters, Plate No. 10,723-3.
[Source: 09366@LoC]

1.
The shadows of evening had shrouded the day,
As a bright little spirit was passing away;
The shutters were closed, and a sad, silent gloom
Pervaded each corner and nook in the room;
The angel of Death had been there and smile'd
On the once rosey face of a beautiful child;
And a pitiful voice broke the silence and said,
"Tie crape on the door: Willie's dead!"

CHORUS
He has gone to the home of the happy and blest;
He is now where the good and the beautiful rest,
Where angels are dwelling upon the bright shore,
Where Death cannot go to "tie crape on the door."

2.
His lips, cold in death, to his mother were pressed,
While she folded his little white hands on his brest,
And his face wore the look that it did when he smiled,
In the little brown eyes of her once darling child;
Tear after tear trickled down on each cheek
Of the loving ones there, who were too sad to speak,
And a sorrowful voice seem'd to come from the bed,
"Tie crape on the door: Willie's dead!"

(CHORUS)

3.
His little form robed in a dress of pure white,
Made it look like an angel preparing for flight,
Only waiting awhile for the King of the kings
To send down from heaven its beautiful wings;
And now the bright flowers of summer will wave,
And bloom in their beauty all over his grave,
But his spirit has gone to the God that forgives--
"Take the crape off the door: Willie lives!"

(CHORUS)