A Wish- anon (NC) c.1939 Amos Abrams, Brown F
[From Brown Collection of NC Folklore, Volume III, 1954, their notes follow. Abrams collected this but his source should have been provided. This is nearly identical to the version Tolman gave in the 1916 JAF with the Died for Love stanzas. The first stanza, a variant of the swallow stanza is found in the Silver Pin. Stanza 4 is found in Tolman and a Newfoundland variant of Must I go Bound collected in the 1930s.
R. Matteson 2017]
254. Little Sparrow
This lyric of the lovelorn is a favorite in the Southern mountains. See BSM 477 and add to the references there given Virginia (FSV 80-1). Florida (SFLQ viii 172-3), Missouri (OFS I 315-17), and Indiana (SFLQ in 205, BSI 328). It is often called 'Come all you fair and tender ladies,' from its opening line. It is distinguished from other songs of a like spirit, such as 'The Inconstant Lover,' by the image of the bird and, generally, by the likening of love to a fair dawn that turns into bad weather. One of the following texts is marked by a trace — rare in American tradition — of the old English 'Seeds of Love' songs.
F. 'A Wish.' From W. Amos Abrams of Boone; not dated, but probably some time in the 1930s. One of the composites so often found in folk lyric. The second, third, and fifth stanzas belong to "The Butcher Boy,' the first stanza is from 'Little Sparrow.'
1. I wish I was a little sparrow;
I'd fly away from sin and sorrow,
I'd fly away like a turtle dove,
I'd fly in the arms of my true love.
2 In yonder lands there is a home.
They say that's where my true love's gone.
But there's a girl sits on his knee.
Oh, don't you know that's grief to me?
3 It's grief to me, I'll tell my why,
Because she has more gold than I.
But her gold will melt, her silver fly;
She'll see the day she's poor as I.
4 Oh, I wish, I wish, but I wish in vain.
That he'd come hack to me again.
But now he['s| gone, left me alone.
Poor orphan girl without a home.
5 Go dig my grave both wide and deep.
Place a marble stone at my head and feet
And on my breast place a turtle dove
To testify that I died of love.