Sweet William

I saw you kiss sweet William

In a forest of red leaves

The rain ran cold against my neck

The wind lay down to sleep

I walked all night in stillness

And I walked all day as well

I walked across the desert plains

And through the jagged hills

I slept inside the north wind

In a coracle at sea

And in the deepest darkest woods

My dreams sang songs to me

I dreamed I killed sweet William

And I kissed his cold white brow

I washed his body in the lake

And I sewed his eyelids down

Sing a song of sixpence

Battles in the past tense

Picked out by the snow

If I should find sweet William

Lying pale beneath the snow

I'll row out to the deepest depths

And let sweet William go

I'll watch him sink beneath the flood

And back to where he came

And pray to God and death and blood

I might forget his name