"The Hearse Song" is a song about

burial Burial, also known as interment or inhumation, is a method of final disposition whereby a dead body is placed into the ground, sometimes with objects. This is usually accomplished by excavating a pit or trench, placing the deceased and objec ...

and

human decomposition Decomposition is the process in which the organs and complex molecules of animal and human bodies break down into simple organic matter over time. In vertebrates, five stages of decomposition are typically recognized: fresh, bloat, active decay, ...

, of unknown origin. It was popular as a World War I song, and was popular in the 20th century as an American and British children's song, continuing to the present. It has many variant titles, lyrics, and melodies, but generally features the line "The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out," and thus is also known as "The Worms Crawl In." Generally, the song recounts the viewing of a hearse, prompting the thought of death. The listener's body is buried in a casket and assaulted by worms, then decomposes; some versions continue by stating the dead listener will be forced to eat their moldering remains.

History

The earliest version of the verse is found in a poem by the English writer Matthew Lewis, incorporated in his popular 1796 Gothic novel ''

The Monk ''The Monk: A Romance'' is a Gothic novel by Matthew Gregory Lewis, published in 1796. A quickly written book from early in Lewis's career (in one letter he claimed to have written it in ten weeks, but other correspondence suggests that he ha ...

'', which includes the lines, "The worms they crept in, and the worms they crept out and sported his eyes and his temples about." While there are reports of the song dating back to British soldiers in the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...

(1853–1856), it certainly dates to at least

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

(1914–1918), when it was sung by American and British soldiers, and was collected in various World War I songbooks of the 1920s. The key line, "The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out" appears in some versions of the otherwise unrelated song, ''There Was a Lady All Skin and Bone,'' and may date to 1810 or earlier.

References

Sources

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hearse Song, The English children's songs Songs about death Songs about invertebrates Songs of World War I Traditional children's songs The Pogues songs Year of song unknown Hearses