A Lyke-Wake Dirge A Lyke-Wake Dirge takes place on a cold night, in a small house with a blazing fire and a candle burning. People are gathered around a corpse, and they sing the dirge. You can tell from the diction used, that this dirge was written a long time ago. It is archaic, using words like ae, thou, and thye, all of which aren't used today. Old spellings for words are also used, shoon …showed first 75 words of 369 total…

…showed last 75 words of 369 total…poor. If they had, the shoes would be returned to them and they could cross safely. Next they would have to pass through the purgatory fire, which wouldn't burn them as long as they had given food and drink to the poor. I believe that the dirge was sung as much for the deceased as it was for those singing it. It warned that if they weren't charitable there journey to Christ would be painful.