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Fair Charlotte
Sung to the editor by Frank Fowler, and taken down by Miss Chad-burne, a University student, both in Mattawamkeag, Maine, 1916. Phillips Barry, who has traced the history of this song for nearly a hundred years, ascribes it to William Carter, who was a blind poet of Bensontown, Vermont, 1835 {Journal of American Folk-Lore, XXV, 156-158). Mr. Reid, Bangor, Maine, a former woodsman, says that his father taught him this song when he was six or seven years old, and that his father had known it a long time. Mr. Reid, I judge, was at the time over sixty years old. Many versions of this song have been collected from all over the country.
1 Young Charlotte dwelt by the mountain side
In a rude and lonely spot; There was no house for three miles round Except her father's cot.
2 And yet on many a wintry eve
Young swain would gather there; For her father kept a social abode, And she was very fair.
3 He liked to see his daughter dressed
Just like a city belle; For she was the only child he had, And he loved his daughter well,
4 Her hair was black as raven's wing,
And her skin like lilies fair, And her teeth were like the pearls so white: Few with her could compare. |
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