140
Once I Had a Sweetheart
This song, known also in Tennessee (JAFL xlv 86-7, FSSH
270-1) and Mississippi (JAFL xxxix 150), tells in its fuller form
— the Tennessee text has eight stanzas — how her sweetheart was
persuaded away to the wars and was killed. Our text is incomplete.
'Once I Had a Sweetheart.' From the John Burch Blaylock Collection.
1 Once I had a sweetheart,
A sweetheart brave and true ;
His hair was dark and curly,
His cunning eyes were blue.
2 I guess he was like all other boys
Who had a friend in charm,
And ofif together they would roam
For pleasure and for fun.
3 He bought a golden finger ring
And placed it upon my hand.
'When this you see remember me.
When I'm in some foreign land.'
OLDER BALLADS — MOSTLY BRITISH 375
4 He was persuaded,
For what I do not know ;
But when he came to say good-bye
My heart did overflow.