Young Brides

I typically don't like music videos.  As Eddie Vedder once said, "You supposed to sit with your headphones in a bean bag chair and picture the music in your mind."  One of the few exceptions to my dislike is "Young Bride" by Midlake  (watch it on youtube here).  The tale reminds me of the poem "The Griesly Bride" by John Manifold, though the endings are different.  In the video, I like that there is this whole other world behind the bookcase.  I might try to design a little nook like that in a home someday.

The Griesly Bride

"Lie down, my newly married wife;

Lie easy as you can.

You're young, and ill-accustomed yet

To sleeping with a man."

The snow was deep, the moon was full

As it shown on the cabin floor.

His young bride rose without a word

And ran barefoot through the door.

He up and followed, fast and sure,

And an angry man was he,

But his young bride wasn't e'er in sight,

And only the moon shone clearly.

He followed her track through the new deep snow,

Calling out loud her name.

Only the dingoes in the hills

Yowled back at him again.

Then the hair stood up along his neck

And his angry mind was gone,

For where the two-foot track gave out,

A four-footed track went on.

Her nightgown lay upon the snow

As it might on a bed sheet,

And the tracks that led from where it lay

Were never of human feet.

He first started in to walkin' back,

Then he began to run,

And his quarry turned all in her track

And hunted him in turn.

An empty bed still waits for him

As he lies in a crimson tide.

Beware, beware, oh trapper men,

Beware of a griesly bride.

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Words by John Manifold, music by Tom Campbel