Bluegrass Messengers

Barbara Allen- Keely (WV) 1897 Cox F

[From: Folk-Songs of the South- 1925 by John Harrington Cox. His notes follow. This version has a "gift" stanza.

R. Matteson 2015]

16. BONNY BARBARA ALLEN (Child, No. 84)

Twelve variants have been found in West Virginia under various titles. A is a very close reproduction of Child B, stanza for stanza, with an added stanza at  the end not found in Child; B, in general, follows Child B, with two stanzas at the beginning not found anywhere in Child; C, D, E, J, agree closely with Child A;  the first three stanzas of E are like Child B, the next five, like Child A; the leaving of three rolls of money to Barbara in F indicates some connection with the ballad in Buchan's MS. Cf. Child II, 276, also West Virginia G 3; in H 2 the  lover defends himself, an incident not found in Child; for similar stanzas in American texts, see Smith, p. 13; Journal, xix, 286; xix, 287; xxn, 63; Campbell and Sharp, p. 90; Wyman and Brockway, p. 5; McGill, p. 39; Pound, p. 9.  In this connection it is interesting to note that one of the American texts makes  the lover acknowledge the charge as a just one (Journal, xx, 256).

For American texts, in song-books and in oral circulation, see references in  Journal, xxix, 160, Xxx, 317; Xxxv, 343. Add Focus, V, 282; Shoemaker,  p. 107; Pound, No. 3; Bulletin, Nos. 6-10; Minish MS.

F. "Barbara Allen." Contributed by Mr. Josiah Keely, Kayford, Kanawha  County, December 27, 1917; learned about twenty years before from Geraldine  Dickinson, a little girl who sang it in the home of a family named Warner, who lived on Cotton Hill Mountain in Fayette County.

1 'T was early in the month of May,
The roses all were bloomin';
Sweet William cou'ted a fair young maid,
Her name was Barbara Allen.

2 He cou'ted her six mont's or mo',
An' was 'bout to gain her favor;
"Young man, young man," she says to him,
"Young men has mines [1] to waver."

3 He went right home an' taken sick,
An' he sent for Barbara Allen;
So slow she walk, so slow she came,
She found her true love dy-i-n-g.

4 She walked along by his bedside
An' gazed down upon him;
"Young man, young man," she says to him,
"I believe you is a-dy-i-n-g."

5 "In vain, in vain my love has called,
For love of you I's dy-i-n-g."
Then he turned his face to the milk-white wall,
An' his back on Barbara Allen.

6 "Look under my head, when I am dead,
An' you'll find three rolls of money;
Go share 'em wid those ladies 'round,
An' done [2] slight Barbara Allen."

7 "Dear mother, dear mother, go make my bed,
Go make it soft an' easy;
Sweet William died to-day for love,
An' I's gwine die to-morrow.

8 "Dear father, dear father, go dig my grave,
Go dig it long and norrow,
To-day Sweet William died for love,
An' I's gwine die of sorrow."

9 They buried him in the new churchyard,
An' Barbara in the other;
An' from his grave there grew a sweet red rose,
But from her grave a brier.

10 They grew and dumb to the steeple top,
Tell they could not grow any higher;
Then they wropped and tied and withered and died,
The rose wropped round the brier.

1. For minds.

2. For don't.