Barbru Allen- Crocker (MS) pre-1926 Hudson B
[From: Version A in Ballads and Songs from Mississippi- Arthur Palmer Hudson; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 39, No. 152 (Apr. - Jun., 1926), pp. 93-194. Version B in Folksongs of Mississippi, 1936.
R. Matteson 2012]
4. BONNY BARBARA ALLEN (Child No. 84.)
The first of Four texts. For other texts from the South, see Cox, No. 16; Campbell and Sharp, No. 21 ; Wyman and Brockway, p. I; Reed Smith, pp. 104--I16.
Version B- Barbru Allen. Communicated by Mr. Wesson M. Crocker, then a student in the University of Mississippi, now principal of the public school at Star, Mississippi, who learned to sing it in Calhoun County.
1. 'Twas in the pleasant month of May,
When the green leaves all were growing,
Sweet William on his death-bed lay
For the love of Barbru Allen.*
2. He sent his servant to the town
Wherein she was dwelling,
Saying, "My master is sick and sends for you,
If you be named Barbru Allen."
3. And slowly, slowly she got up,
And slowly went unto him,
And all she said when she got there,
"Young man, I think you're dying."
4. "O yes, I'm sick, I'm very sick,
And death's now on me dwelling,
And none the better I never will be
Unless I get Barbru Allen."
5. "0 yes, O yes, you're very sick,
And death's now on you dwelling,
And none the better you never will be,
For you'll never get Barbru Allen."
6. He turned his pale face to the wall.
She turned her back upon him:
"Adieu, adieu to the friends all around,
And a woe to Barbru Allen."
7. She was about a mile from town
When she heard the death bell tolling,
And every toll that the death bell tolled
Was a woe to Barbru Allen.
8. "Go dig my grave both wide and deep,
Dig it both deep and narrow;
Sweet William died for me in love,
I'll die for him in sorrow."
9. Sweet William was buried in the new churchyard,
And Barbru by his side,
And out of her grave grew a blood-red rose,
And out of his a brier.
10. They grew and they grew till they grew to the top,
And they could not grow any more.
They tied themselves in a true love's knot,
For it was true love that they bore.
* I preserve Mr. Crocker's spelling, which, he says, corresponds to the sound of the word Barbara as it was pronounced by those who sang it, namely, Barbroo.