Annie Lisle

"Annie Lisle" is the name of an 1857 ballad by Boston, Massachusetts songwriter H. S. Thompson first published by Moulton & Clark of Newburyport, Massachusetts, and later by Oliver Ditson & Co. It is about the death of a young maiden, by what some have speculated to be tuberculosis, although the lyric does not explicitly mention tuberculosis, or "consumption" as it was called then. The song might have slipped into obscurity had the tune not been adopted by countless colleges, universities, and high schools worldwide as their respective alma mater songs.

Alma Maters

The first college to have used the tune in a spirit song seems to have been Cornell University. In 1870, students Archibald Weeks and Wilmot Smith wrote "Far Above Cayuga's Waters" and used an adaptation of Thompson's melody. Many other colleges and high schools, almost certainly influenced by Cornell's version, have since created their own renditions. Some include:

• Acadia University
• Alliance High School, Alliance, Ohio
• American University of Beirut
• Anderson High School, Cincinnati, Ohio
• Astoria High School, Astoria, Oregon
• Baldwin Boys High School, Bangalore, India
• Brent School, (Baguio City Philippines)
• Brunswick High School, Brunswick, Maryland
• Charles E. Gorton High School, Yonkers, New York
• Chung Chi College, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong (in Chinese)
• Chung Ling High School, Penang, Malaysia (in Chinese)
• College of William & Mary, James Southall Wilson
• Colorado State University
• Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
• Davis College
• Deep Creek High School, Chesapeake, Virginia
• Delbarton School, Morristown, New Jersey
• Eastern Nazarene College, Quincy, Massachusetts
• Edcouch-Elsa High School, Edcouch, Texas
• Emory University
• Giles County High School, Pulaski, Tennessee
• Horseheads High School, Horseheads, New York
• Howard Payne University, Brownwood, Texas
• Hwa Chong Institution, Singapore (in Chinese)
• Indiana State University, Terre Haute, Indiana, 1912
• Indiana University, J. T. Giles, 1893
• Lake Oswego High School, Lake Oswego, Oregon
• Lehigh University
• Lewis & Clark College
• Lyman Hall High School (Wallingford, CT)
• Massanutten Military Academy (Woodstock, VA
• Mercer University
• Milan High School, Milan, Tennessee
• Moravian College, J. Kenneth Pfohl, 1900
• Murray State University, A.B. Austin, 1935
• North Greenville University
• Oglethorpe County High School, Lexington, Georgia
• Orange High School, Orange, California
• Paulsboro High School, Paulsboro, New Jersey
• Peninsula Catholic High School, Newport News, Virginia
• Ripon College, Ripon, Wisconsin
• Roanoke Bible College, Sarah P. Bondurant, 1948
• Soochow University, Taipei (in Chinese)
• Soochow University, Suzhou, China (in Chinese)
• Jin Ling High School, Nanjing, China (in Chinese)
• Lingnan University (Hong Kong)
• Navasota Junior High School, Navasota, Texas
• Shippensburg University, Shippensburg, Pennsylvania
• Stanton College Preparatory School, Jacksonville, Florida
• Stuyvesant High School, New York, New York
• Swarthmore College
• Syracuse University, Junius W. Stevens, 1893
• T.L. Hanna High School, Anderson, SC
• Tallassee High School (Tallassee, Alabama)
• Tennessee Temple University
• Tennessee Wesleyan College
• Torrance High School (Torrance, California)
• Tucker High School (Tucker, Georgia)
• University of Alabama, Helen Vickers, 1908
• University of Georgia, J.B. Wright, Jr., 1912; (additional verse by Gail Carter Dendy, 1974)
• University of Kansas, George Penny, 1891
• University of Missouri, G.A. Wauchope, 1895
• University of North Carolina, William Starr Myers, 1897
• University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
• Vanderbilt University, Robert F. Vaughn, 1907
• Western Carolina University
• Western Washington University
• White Plains High School, Anniston, AL
• Wofford College, Spartanburg, SC
• Xavier University of Louisiana

Lyrics

Down where the waving willows

’Neath the sunbeams smile,

Shadow’d o’er the murm’ring waters

Dwelt sweet Annie Lisle;

Pure as the forest lily,

Never tho’t of guile

Had its home within the bosom

Of sweet Annie Lisle.

CHORUS

Wave willows, murmur waters,

Golden sunbeams, smile!

Earthly music cannot waken

Lovely Annie Lisle.

Sweet came the hallow’d chiming

Of the Sabbath bell,

Borne on the morning breezes

Down the woody dell.

On a bed of pain and anguish

Lay dear Annie Lisle,

Chang’d were the lovely features,

Gone the happy smile.

[CHORUS]

"Raise me in your arms, O Mother;

Let me once more look

On the green and waving willows

And the flowing brook.

Hark! the sound of angel music

From the choirs above!

Dearest mother, I am going;

Surely God is love."

[CHORUS]

In popular culture

The tune is also used in the parting song for the Kellerman Resort in the 1987 film Dirty Dancing.

External links

• Murray State Racer Band playing their Alma Mater
• The Choir of William and Mary singing their Alma Mater