The saddest country&western song ever recorded, or one of them, has got to be “The Water Lily”, by Tom T. Hall. It’s taken from a poem by Australian poet, Henry Lawson (1867-1922):

The Water Lily

A lonely young wife

In her dreaming discerns

A lily-decked pool

With a border of ferns,

And a beautiful child,

With butterfly wings,

Trips down to the edge of the water and sings:

‘Come, mamma! come!

‘Quick! follow me—

‘Step out on the leaves of the water-lily!’

And the lonely young wife,

Her heart beating wild,

Cries, ‘Wait till I come,

‘Till I reach you, my child!’

But the beautiful child

With butterfly wings

Steps out on the leaves of the lily and sings:

‘Come, mamma! come!

‘Quick! follow me!

‘And step on the leaves of the water-lily!

And the wife in her dreaming

Steps out on the stream,

But the lily leaves sink

And she wakes from her dream.

Ah, the waking is sad,

For the tears that it brings,

And she knows ’tis her dead baby’s spirit that sings:

‘Come, mamma! come!

‘Quick! follow me!

‘Step out on the leaves of the water-lily!’

http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/show/32272-Henry-Lawson-The-Water-Lily

Tom T. Hall sings it on a TV show called “Song of the Mountains”. It’s also on YouTube, by the way, at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFnVuuGAMSA http://www.amazon.com/Saturday-Night-Sunday-Morning-Stanley/dp/samples/B000008P8N/ref=dp_tracks_all_1#disc_1

The song was also recorded by Priscilla Herdman on an album of the same name. http://www.priscillaherdman.com/index.htm

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