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152 Ballads and Songs of Michigan
53 A SEAMAN AND HIS LOVE
This seems to be a very corrupt version of the English song "A Pleasant new Song between a Seaman and his Love- Shewing though, at first, in misery his time he spent, He met his love at last, with joy and sweet content," in The Roxburghe Ballads, III, 127-131. The Roxburghe text, "by Cuthbert Birket," contains seventeen stanzas of eight short lines each.
The present version was sung in 1934 by Mr, E. W. Harns, Greenville, who learned the song from his mother, about i860.
i One dark and gloomy night all clouded over, Where rivers running by and ships a-saihng, A pretty maid I spied, weeping and wailing. I stepped up to her and asked her, "What doth grieve thee?" The answer that she made, "None can relieve me.
2 " Tis seven long years since my love and I were parted; He left me here on shore quite brokenhearted.
He promised to return if life was lent him
Which caused me to mourn lest death prevent him."
3 "Your love and I both fought under one banner;
It was for old England's right both justice and honor. 'Twas just before he died he turned to me and said, 'Bear me this token to she that was my bride. There's no one fairer, And ask her to be kind and wed the bearer.'"
4 She wrang her hands and cried like one distracted; She knew not what she said nor how she acted. "Through mourning weeds Til go, no one shall cheer me, Since death has served me so, none shall come near me."
5 He see that she proved true, his love grew stronger. "Kiss me, my dear," said he, "Love is no slander, You were my hero wife and I philander."
6 They both sat down and sung like maids of pleasure, They both sat down and sung, but she sung clearest, Like a nightingale in spring, "Welcome, my dearest." |
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