A little black thing among the snow, Crying! ‘weep! weep!’ in notes of woe!‘Where are thy father and mother? Say!’— ‘They are both gone up to the church to pray.
‘Because I was happy upon the heath, And smiled among the winter’s snow,They clothed me in the clothes of death, And taught me to sing the notes of woe.
‘And because I am happy and dance and sing, They think they have done me no injury,And are gone to praise God and His priest and king, Who made up a heaven of our misery.’