15. You Can't Come Again- Sanders (WV) 1924
15 - YOU CAN'T COME AGAIN
No local title. Communicated by Miss Frances Sanders, Morgantown, Monongalia County, June , 1924, Variations of stanzas 7, 8 find their way into several songs.
[music]
Hexatonic, D/Ae.
abcde
1. I once did know a lady,
And I loved her as my life,
And I'd freely give my heart and hand
To make her my wife
Ah, to make her my wife.
2. I took her by the hand
And I led her to the door,
And I threw my arms around her
And I said to her once more,
Oh, I said to her once more!
3. "You are mine, you are mine,
And forever shall reign."
The answer that she gave me was
"You need not come again,
Oh, you need not come again."
4. I was gone six months or more,
Which caused her to complain,
And she wrote to me a letter, saying,
"Why don't you come again,
Oh, why don't you come again?"
5. I wrote to her a letter,
Full of scorn and disdain,
Saying, "Have you forgot the time you said,
I need not come again,
Oh, I need not come again?"
6 She wrote to me another,
All blotted o'er and stained,
Saying, "Oh do forget the time I said,
You need not come again;
Oh, you need not come again."
7. Come all you young men,
And a warning take from me,
Never center your affection,
On a green growing tree,
Oh, on a green growing tree.
8 For the branches they will wither,
And the roots they will decay,
And the beauty of the fairest maid
Will soon fade away, oh, will soon fade away
Oh, will soon fade away.
Fuson, p. 145, prints a defective version in five stanzas (Cox). Add Sharp-Karpeles, II, p. 96 (text and tunes). For other examples
of the exchange-of-letters themes, Henry, pp. 298, 300; Karpeles p. 48 Sharp-Karpeles, II p. 20-21. This song has a similarity in subject to "Sally and her True Love Billy", the secondary form of Child 295 (Halpert).