The Lass of Aughrim - Frank Patterson

A traditional Irish song in the film: The Dead (1987), based on the same name story in the book "Dubliners" by James Joyce

If you'll be the lass of Aughrim
As I am taking you mean to be
Tell me the first token
That passed between you and me

O don't you remember
That night on yon lean hill
When we both met together
Which I am sorry now to tell

The rain falls on my heavy locks
And the dew wets my skin;
My babe lies cold within my arms;
But none will let me in

• Category

  Music

[camilouwalk]

i dont get it... why is she just standing on the steps? and he's just standing there... its kinda weird...

[Chih-Huei Wendy Wang]

Filming technique: Montage, invites us to try to use our imagination to illustrate an association of ideas. Sometimes it is hard, without the context - what goes before and after this very moment. Let me try to help you: in this clip, end of a dinner party, people are leaving.

[Chih-Huei Wendy Wang]

Someone started singing on the second floor living room; the song reminds the woman of her past love, deep in her thoughts, she is reluctant to leave the sentiment; her husband waiting donwstairs, looking at his wife seemingly so sad. He is feeling sorry, not knowing what to do to help her.

[norniron21]

pssst...

heavy locks...

traditonal song

words change...

check out some of the singer's versions of trad Irish....

he was a brilliant tenor...

and thanks for posting this

always loved this scene...

sorry

just that those lines are sorta crucial to the moment and maybe aren't what you'd find on the internet...thanks again

[Chih-Huei Wendy Wang]

Dear friend,

Thank you very much once again!

I agree with you; I would like the lyrics here be true to the song as much as possible. Since I do not really speak the language, I can hardly tell what's being sung, therefore I take your word for it.

Very best regards,

Wendy

[KfromKansas]

Thank you for posting this lovely clip. I love this movie. I have watched it innumerable times. Miss Huston was able to capture the look which I suppose all of us are incapable of hiding upon unexpectedly hearing a song or name whose very memory renders us incapable of movement. I believe we all have our Michael Fureys, do we not?

[Valeria De Lisio]

help me in finding the music sheet/score!

[Gary Pansey]

It represents the "distance" between them...and it's also the first time that the husband is confronted with the ghost of her past.

[Jim Lynch]

She is transfixed by the song and lost in memory. He is transfixed and fascinated by her reverie. One of the most perfect moments in all of film history for me. Poignant and as full of meaning as any moment I can recall. If it doesn't speak to you as it speaks to me it is my fervent hope that something does or will. Like all great art, it transcends this drab plane for some and is senseless to some others. I admire you for asking.

[Debora Duren]

Wow, awesome Ty!

[Dave Glo]

A sad and poignant moment in this quiet, understated film. Anjelica Huston's character doesn't unfold until this scene. Then her entire presence in this story becomes understood when she tells her husband of a long lost love.

[Daniel Jauri]

this sceene takes part in one of the joyce's stories of the book "Dubliners"..

[NatSci]

One of the best scenes in movie history..

[James Benton]

Joycean Paralysis perhaps?

[Andrew Stuart Brown]

A belated comment, or correction. Actually, husband Gabriel Conroy is realizing for the first time that his wife, long before she met him, was deeply in love with another. This stuns Conroy. Later, at their hotel, they talk and he learns that the true real passion of his wife's life was for a boy named Michael Furey, who literally died of love for her. Slowly Conroy understands the sorrow that makes him a part of Ireland, as the snow of a universal life and mortality falls outside.

[HAPPYTHELEAF]

Huston cleverly captured this, using the stair to create a space where we the viewer could participate simultaneously with both player's thus making the song trigger in both of them their buried pain as green grass hidden beneath white snow.