Ballads & Songs of Southern Michigan-songbook
A Collection of 200+ traditional songs & variations with commentaries including Lyrics & Sheet music
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86 Ballads and Songs of Michigan
22 WHO IS TAPPING AT MY BEDROOM WINDOW?
This is a widely distributed song which belongs to a large group of English and Scottish songs concerning the "Night Visit" (Charles Read Baskervill, "English Songs on the Night Visit," PMLA, XXXVI, 565-614). AH the Michigan versions contain lines that tell of Willie's killing himself with the dagger and of Mary's following his example, a borrowing from "The Silver Dagger," which, Kittredge notes, occurs also in the Wehman broadside of this song QAFL, XXX, 338). Only A of the Michigan texts begins with the lover trying to arouse his sweetheart from sleep. A and E have a final stanza describing the feelings of the parents the morning after the tragedy For other texts and references see Cox, pp. 348-349, and Mackenzie, pp. 99-100. See also Eddy, No. 26; Greenleaf and Mansfield, pp. 55-56; Scarborough, pp. 139-142, Sharp, I, 358-364; and, for a somewhat similar song, Ord, p. 318.
Version A was sung in 1935 by Mrs. Peter Miller, West Branch, who learned the song in 1895, when she heard it sung in a lumber camp.
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"Who xs tap-ping at my bed- room win - dow,
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Whis-pnng soft and mourn -fill - lyi.....Tis I, 'tis I, you
dear - est Ma - ry, Come once more to trou - ble you"
A
1 "Who is tapping at my bedroom window, Whisp'ring soft and mournfully?"
" Tis I, 'tis I, you dearest Mary, Come once more to trouble you.
2 "O Mary dear, go and ask your father If you my wedded bride might be; And if he says no, return and tell me, And 111 no longer trouble thee."
3 "O Willie dear, I dare not ask him, For he is on his bed to rest,
With a silver dagger lying beside him;
He swore he would pierce my lover's heart." |
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