Awake, Arise- (NC) c.1920 Sutton/ Brown A
[From: The Brown Collection Volume 2, 1952, music from Volume 4. Their notes follow.
R. Matteson 2016]
71. The Drowsy Sleeper
Familiar both in print and as traditional song on both sides of the water; see BSM 1 18-19, and add to the references there given Virginia (FSV 56-7), North Carolina (FSRA 81-2; a fragment of it sung by Negroes, ANFS 177-8), Florida (SFLQ viii 167-8), Arkansas (OFS i 246), Missouri (OFS i 244-6), Ohio (BSO 92-4), Indiana (BSI 170-4), Michigan (BSSM 86-8), Illinois (JAFL LX 223-4), and Wisconsin (JAFL lii 31). Mrs. Steely found it in the Ebenezer community in Wake county. It is No. 518 in the series of stall ballads printed by Wehnian in New York. For its possible relation to the Gude and Godlie Ballads of 1567, see JEFDSS in 161-4. Very often it is combined, as in version B below, with 'The Silver Dagger,' probably because of the weapon (sometimes specifically a dagger) which the girl tells her lover that her father (or mother) has in readiness against him.
A. 'Awake, Arise.' Secured by Mrs. Sutton from the singing of a woman who "could not read or write." Mrs. Sutton notes: "This ballad is chiefly noticeable for its tune; ... it is like a gypsy song, all wailing minors."
1 'Awake, arise, you drowsy sleeper!
Awake, arise; it's near about day.
Awake, arise; go ask your father
If you're my bride to be.
And if you're not, come back and tell me;
It's the very last time I'll bother thee.'
2 'I cannot go and ask my father,
For he is on his bed of rest
And in his hand he holds a weapon
To kill the one I love the best.'
3. 'Ah, Mary, dear Mary, you know I love you!
You've nearly caused my heart to break.
From North Carolina to Pennsylvany
I'd cross the wide ocean for your sake[1].
4. 'I'll build my house on some distant river
And there I'll spend my days and years.
And I'll eat nothing but green willow
And drink nothing but my tears.'
1. Similar to the Scotch "I Will Set my Ship in Order." This stanza should follow the missing "Come back" stanza also found in Scotland. See Wyman 1916 for a complete version.
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71. The Drowsy Sleeper [Volume 4]
A. 'Awake, Arise.' Sung by anonymous singer. Recorded as MS score by Mrs. Sutton, but no date or place given. Songs like this one, and Mrs. Sutton's remark, "It is like a gypsy song, all wailing minors'" (italics by this editor), make one sincerely doubt Mrs. Sutton's qualifications and judgment in musical matters. There is of course no minor quality in this song, "wailing" or other-
wise. The text of this version is a contraction of SharpK i 359, No. 57B, stanzas 1 and 3.
[upcoming]
Scale: Hexatonic (4). Tonal Center : c. Structure: abab2a'b' (, 2.2,2,2,2,2 ) : aa1ai (4,4,4).