Alleluia, Sweetest Lay

For The Weeks After Epiphany

Words: Alleluia dulce carmen, from the Magdeburg Breviary.

Translation:  Robert Campbell, of Sherrington

Source: Orby Shipley, Annus Sanctus: Hymns of the Church for the Ecclesiastical Year. Vol. 1. (London and New York: Burns and Oates, 1884), p. 57.

Alleluia, sweetest lay, 
Sung through heaven's eternal day ; 
Alleluia, angel choir, 
Now ye wake the golden lyre ; 
Throned on God's own holy hill, 
Alleluia, sing ye still. 

Alleluia, souls set free ' 
Join the heavenly melody ; 
Far from earthly woe and wrong, 
Alleluia, be your song ; 
We who exiles yet remain, 
Faint and feeble flows our strain, 

Alleluia, now we sing, 
Lenten hours will sorrow bring ; 
Then must cease the voice of joy, 
Penitence our hearts employ ; 
We are fallen — sin and woe 
Cast their shade on all below. 

Note from Shipley:

64. Alleluia, dulce carmen. Hymn of the Thirteenth Century, for the week before Septuagesima, from the Magdeburg Breviary. Alleluia, sweetest lay. Robert Campbell, of Sherrington. 57

If you would like to help support Hymns and Carols of Christmas, please click on the button below and make a donation.