Annie Girl- Mrs. G. V. Easley (MS) 1926 Hudson
[From: Ballads and Songs from Mississippi- Arthur Palmer Hudson; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 39, No. 152 (Apr. - Jun., 1926), pp. 93-194. Hudson's notes follow.
Cf. Sandburg's version "Kind Miss" 1927
R. Matteson 2016]
32. ANNIE GIRL
From Mrs. G. V. Easley, who says that it was one of the most popular songs in her girlhood in Calhoun County. This is a compound of three songs, "The Drowsy Sleeper," "The Spanish Lady" ("No, Sir, No"), and "The Sailor's Return" ("The Broken Token"). For references see Cox, Nos. io8, 158, 92. For stanza 5 cf. "Little Sparrow" (Cox, No. 140, stanza I).
1. "Annie girl, Annie girl, go ask your mother
If you can be my bride to-day.
If she says yes, come quick and tell me;
If she says no, we'll run away."
2. "My mamma says that she's not willing,
My papa says 'twill never do
For me to leave a world of pleasure
And run away with a man like you."
3. "Annie girl, Annie girl, I've gold and silver,
Annie girl, Annie girl, I've house and land,
Annie girl, Annie girl, I've a world of pleasure
That you can have at your command."
4. "It's what do I care for your gold and silver,
It's what do I care for your house and land,
What do I care for your world of pleasure,
When all I want is a handsome man?"
5. "Annie girl, Annie girl, don't marry for beauty,
For beauty is a deceiving [fay].
Beauty is the stars on a summer morning,
When the stars all fade away."
6. "I have a true lover out on the ocean,
For seven long year he's on the sea.
If he lives single for seven year longer,
Not a man on earth shall marry me."
7. "Perhaps your true love he is drowned,
Perhaps he's on some battlefield slain,
Perhaps he's to some pretty girl married,
And his face you'll never see again."
8. "If he is drowned, I hope he is happy,
Or if he is slain in battle [grim];
And if he to some pretty girl is married,
I'll love the girl that married him."