Othello Song Willow Quotes

My mother had a maid call’d Barbary:
She was in love, and he she loved proved mad
And did forsake her: she had a song of "willow;"
An old thing ’twas, but it express’d her fortune,
And she died singing it: that song to-night
Will not go from my mind.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 4, Scene 3. Desdemona tells the tragic story of her mother’s maid Barbary, forsaken by her lover who went mad. The maid died while singing "The Willow Song" about her lost love. There are parallels between Desdemona and Barbary and much foreshadowing in this passage of Desdemona’s terrible fate. Othello will be driven to madness by jealousy and Desdemona will die by her husband’s hands soon after singing this song.

The poor soul sat sighing by a sycamore tree,
Sing all a green willow:
Her hand on her bosom, her head on her knee,
Sing willow, willow, willow:
The fresh streams ran by her, and murmur’d her moans;
Sing willow, willow, willow;
Her salt tears fell from her, and soften’d the stones;
Lay by these.

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 4, Scene 3. Desdemona sings "The Willow Song" for Emilia, which has to be one of Shakespeare’s saddest songs. The melancholy ballad is about a weeping woman lamenting the cruelty of a lover who abandons her. Desdemona’s fate is foreshadowed in the mournful song.

I call’d my love false love; but what said he then?
Sing willow, willow, willow:
If I court moe women, you’ll couch with moe men!

– William Shakespeare

Othello, Act 4, Scene 3. Desdemona sings "The Willow Song" about a woman’s lost love and heartbreak, which very much mirrors her own situation. The willow is the tree of sadness and grief. Like the woman in the song, Desdemona is brokenhearted at having lost Othello’s love. Just as the man in the song has spurned the woman, amid accusations of infidelity, Othello has cruelly accused the innocent Desdemona of adultery. The song’s words "couch with moe men" means to sleep with more men.
Close