Barbery Allan-Sanford (NS) pre1950 Creighton C; Bronson 36.
[No date given. From Traditional Songs from Nova Scotia, 1950 Creighton and senior. Most of the versions A-G were collected from the 1930s on and are much older than 1950.
R. Matteson 2015]
"Barbery Allan" [C] Sung by Lloyd A. Sanford, East Walton, N.S.
1. Twas early early in the spring
When flowers they were blooming
Young man on his death bed lie
For the love of Barbery Allan.
2. He wrote a letter to the town
Where this fair maid was dwelling
He wrote it wide and he wrote it long
Addressed to Barbery Allan.
3. It's slowly, slowly she arose
And it's slowly she went to him,
And when she got to his bedside
She said, "Young man you're dying."
4. "A dying man I know I am,
One kiss from you might save me."
One kiss from me you ne'er shall set
While your false heart is breaking."
5. He turned his pale face to the wall
And quietly fell a-sighing,
And all the words that he could say
Was, "God have mercy on me.''
6. It's slow, slowly she arose
And slowly she went from him,
And when she got two miles from home
She heard the death bells tolling.
7. And straightway straightway home she went
And straightway to her father,
"My true love died for me to-day
I'll die for him to-morrow."
8. This couple they lie side by side
In a little churchyard yonder,
And from his grave there grew a rose
And from her grave a briar.
9. They grew and grew to the steeple top
Till they could grow no higher,
And there they tied a true lover's knot
The gentle rose and briar.