262. The Lone Prairie


262
The Lone Prairie

This most widely known of cowboy songs is an adaptation of
'The Ocean Burial,' which see. Some of the other poems upon the
same theme as 'The Ocean Burial' are discussed in BSM 388, but
without knowledge of the publication of Chapin's poem in the
Southern Literary Messenger in 1839. For another North Caro-
lina appearance, see Mrs. Steely 122 (1935).

A

'The Dying Cowboy's Prayer.' Secured from Mrs. Minnie Church of
Heaton, Avery county, in 1930. The manuscript has been followed
literatim, but the pointing is the editor's.

1 'Oh, bury me not in the lone pararie' —
These words came sad and mournfully
From the pailed lips of the one who lay
On his dying bed at the close of day.

2 He had waited in pain till ore his brow
Death's shadows fast were gathering now ;
He talked of home and his loved ones there
As the cowboys gathered to see him die.

3 'It matters not, I've oft been toled.

Where the body lays when the heart grows cold ;
Yet grant, oh, grant this wise to me
And bury me not in the lone pararie.

4 'Oh, bury me not' — then his voice failed there.
But we took no heed of his dying prayer ;

In a narrow grave just six by three
We buried him there on the lone pararie.

5 'Let my body be where my mother's prayer
And my sister's care will mingle there,

 

6l4 NORTH CAROLINA FOLKLORE

Where my friends will come and weep o're me,
And bury me not on the lone pararie.'

6 Where the dew drops fall and the butterflies rest
When the flowers bloom on the parade's crest,
Where the wild cyots and the wind sports free
On a west sadle blanket lay a cowboyee.

7 And the cowboy knelt as he wrote it plain.

For the marked the spot where his body was lain ;
In the narrow grave just six by three
They buried him there on the lone pararie.

 

'The Lone Prairie.' Reported by L. W. Anderson as collected by Max-
ine Tillett, one of his pupils at Nag's Head. Three stanzas only.

1 'Oh, bury me not on the lone prairie' —

The words came slow from a mournful youth
On his dying couch at the close of day —
'O grant, O grant this boon to me
And bury me not on the lone prairie.

2 T have ofttimes hoped to be laid when I died
In the old churchyard by the green hillside ;
By my father's bones O bury me

And bury me not on the lone prairie.

3 'Oh, it's bury me where a mother's prayer
And a sister's tears might mingle there,
And passing friends can stop and mourn ;
And bury me not on the lone prairie.'