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Bargery Number 429
Music Notation
Music (Given or Suggested) The source gives "Air - The Battle"
Printer or Publisher
Author Anonymous
Composer
Performer
Earliest Date 1879
Evidence for Earliest Date Date of the event described
Latest Date 1880
Evidence for Latest Date Publication date suggested by the National Library of Scotland
Source of Text Nat. Lib. Scotland L.C.Fol70(79)
Where Printed
Roud V26996
Parsed Title Tay Bridge Disaster, The
First Line In this gay and festive season
Source of Music No source found
Variant Set
Comments on Song
Source Title The Tay Bridge Disaster Dreadful Railway Accident and Great Loss of Life.
Other Imprints
Related Songs ns008

Tay Bridge Disaster, The

In this gay and festive season,
We must deplore the loss of life,
Human beings endowed with reason,
Bent on pleasure, not on strife,
Suddenly life is taken from them,
In a moment they are swept away,
Death has swiftly came upon them,
At the railway bridge on the River Tay.

CHORUS.  The storm had burst the bridge asunder,
                The railway train was swept away,
                The passengers above one hundred,
                Were drowned in the River Tay

The bridge, two miles across the river,
Was built for railway trains to go,
'Twas thought to be an example clever,
To travel above where the waters flow,
The stormy wind caused this destruction,
It caught the bridge and blew it down,
The train was capsized in the river,
And every human soul was drowned.

The accident occured like lightning,
In a moment the train was dashed below,
The grasp of death around them tightening,
No mortal can their feelings know,
Near one hundred human beings,
In the frozen water lay,
Life from them too surely fleeting,
On that fatal Sabbath day.

Men and women, and dear children,
Lay in the river's icy bed.
We all must say may God be with them,
And bless the poor ill-fated dead.
They did not dream that death was near them,
But that, alas, we never know,
The gates of death were beneath, them,
In the water ninty feet below.

The station was besieged by thousands,
Waiting there with bated breath,
The disaster all their fears arousing,
For their dear friends lying cold in death,
There's young and old among the missing,
And a sailor just returned from sea.
By this calamity so distressing,
Hurried into eternity.

May heaven bless our fellow creatures,
Lying in the river Tay,
With bruised and distorted features,
Now their lifeless bodies lay,
Their holiday that day was over,
Their friends and homes they'll see no more,
Husband and wife, and maid and lover,
Lost their lives on that dark shore.

Notes on the Song and Its Historical Context:

 See narrative set NS008 ~ The Tay Bridge disaster 1879 for further discussion of songs about the event.

 

3 across Articles in this Category: click a link

Lamentable Lines on the Tay Bridge...

bar210: Dates ----~1880|

First line "Unto my sad heart rending tale" features the usual motifs but gives no substantial detail of the event. It wildly overestimates the numbers killed, stating...

Tay Bridge Disaster

bar427: Dates ----~----|

From Farewell to steam by Don Bilston. The song gives the details of the train and names David Mitchell of Dundee as the driver. The song describes...

Tay Bridge Disaster, In Memory of the

bar175: Dates 1880~1880|

First line "The Bridge, the Bridge, the wondrous Bridge" seems to be the text on which bar659 is based. It starts by admiring the engineering of the...

Tay Bridge Disaster, The

bar428: Dates 1880~1879|

First line "Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!" Is the only piece that acknowledges the finding of the enquiry.  McGonnagall overestimates the number of lives lost....

Tay Bridge Disaster, The

bar429: Dates 1879~1880|

First line "In this gay and festive season," emphasises that the disaster happened during the Christmas season. It also gives some technical detail about the causes of...

Tay Bridge is Broken and I'm come to...

bar420: Dates ----~----|

A children's game song. 

Tay Bridge Disaster (659)

bar659: Dates 1880~----|

First line "Ye'll all have ye heard about the brig that spanned the river Tay" is a version of 175 ~ In Memory of the Tay Bridge...

Fall of Tay Bridge

bar660: Dates 1880~----|

First line "You people of Scotland I pray give attention" lists 23 victims by name and identifies a further 8 by their relationship to a named victim....

Tay Bridge Disaster (661)

bar661: Dates 1879~1880|

First line "The wintry wind blew loud and chill", was printed in the Dundee Courier of 6th January 1880 [Ref: British Newspaper Archive]. The poem was written...

The Tay Bridge disaster 1879

ns008: Dates ----~----|

The disaster has been well documented and the story will not detain us here. The salient points to bear in mind when looking at the songs and...

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