Bedroom Window- Ethel Doxey (AR) 1903 Belden B
[From the German publication; Archiv für das Studium der neueren Sprachen und Literaturen (1907). Reprinted in Ballads and Songs, 1940. Belden's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2016]
Folksong in Missouri-- Bedroom Window
The following fragments of a folksong known in Missouri — I hardly know how to classify it — are possibly of some interest in connection with the pieces described by O. Ritter in the Archiv CXVII. 54 ('Burnsiana' IX).
The second was written down by Miss Ethel Doxey in Carroll County, Arkansas, in November 1903.
II.
Who is this at my bedroom window
Cryin' so loud and mournfully?
Tis I, tis I, your own true lover
That's once more to bother thee.
Go love, go love, and ask your mother
If you this night my bride can be?
I will not, will not go ask my mother
Nor let her know my love so dear.
Go love, go love, and ask your father
If you this night my bride can be?
I will not, will not ask my father
For yonder he lies on his bed of rest,
And by his side he keeps a weapon
To slay the one my heart loves best.
I'll go, I'll go to some lonely valley
There I'll spend my weeks and years
I'll eat nothing but the willows
I'll drank nothin' but my tears.
Come back, come back, my own true lover
Come back, come back once more to me
I'll forsake my father and mother
And go along and walk with thee.