Barbara Allan- Kerr (GA) 1928 JOAFL
[From: A Georgia Version of Barbara Allan by Charles Bowie Millican; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 42, No. 165 (Jul. - Sep., 1929), pp. 303-305. His notes follow.
Note that the spelling is curiously different in the title (Barbara Allan) and in the verses (Barbara Allen)
R. Matteson 2012]
A GEORGIA VERSION OF BARBARA ALLAN. The following version of Barbara Allan, which partly blends Child A and B and which adds as its final stanza a motif common to Fair Margaret and Sweet William, Lord Lovel, and The Lass of Roch Royal, was sung by Mrs. John Kerr, Cave Spring, Georgia, R. F. D. No. 1, on December 29, 1928. Mrs. Kerr, my paternal aunt, told me she learned the ballad from my great-grandmother, Mrs. Martha Jane Bouchillon, who was born near Abbeville, South Carolina in 1827. Mrs. Bouchillon moved to Floyd County, Georgia, sometime between 1845 and 1849.
1. In Scarlet Town, where I was born,
There was a fair maid dwelling,
And every youth cried well awa'
Her name was Barbara Allen.
2. All in the merry month of May,
Green buds when they were swelling,
Young Jimmie Groves on his death-bed lay
For the love of Barbara Allen.
3. He sent his men unto her then,
To the town where she did dwell in,
Saying, "You must come to my master now,
If your name be Barbara Allen."
4. "If death be printed on his face,
And o'er his heart be stealing,
Yet little better shall he be
For lovely Barbara Allen.
5. "If on his death-bed he doth lie,
What needs this tale you're telling?
I cannot keep him from his death,"
Said lovely Barbara Allen.
6. So slowly, slowly she came up,
And slowly she came nigh him,
And all she said when there she came:
"Young man, I think you're dying."
7. He turned his face unto her straight,
With deadly sorrow sighing:
"O pretty maid, come pity me;
I'm on my death-bed lying."
8. "If on your death-bed you do lie,
What needs this tale you're telling ?
I cannot keep you from your death;
Farewell," said Barbara Allen.
9. He turned his face unto the wall,
And death was with him dealing:
"Adieu, adieu, my dear friends all,
Adieu to Barbara Allen."
10. While she was walking o'er the fields,
She heard the bells a-knelling,
And every stroke did seem to say:
"Unworthy Barbara Allen!"
11. She turned her body round about,
And spied the corpse a-coming,
While all her friends cried out amain:
"Unworthy Barbara Allen!"
12. When he was dead and laid in grave,
Her heart was struck with sorrow:
"O mother, mother, make my bed,
For I shall die tomorrow.
13. "Hard-hearted creature him to slight
Who loved me so dearly;
O that I had been more kind to him
When he was alive and near me!"
14. She on her death-bed as she lay
Begged to be buried by him,
And so repented of the day
That she did e'er deny him.
15. "Farewell, farewell, ye virgins all,
And shun the fault I fell in;
Henceforth take warning by the fall
Of cruel Barbara Allen."
16. Out of his grave sprang a rose-bush,
And out of hers a briar;
They grew and wrapped in a true love-knot:
The rose wrapped round the briar.
CHARLES BOWIE MILLICAN.
Harvard University.