Drowsy Sleeper- Mary Ann Bagley (KY) 1916 Wyman
[From Ballads and Songs by G. L. Kittredge; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 30, No. 117 (Jul. - Sep., 1917), pp. 283-369. His notes follow.
This is one of the traditional US versions where no suicide occurs. The "Come back" stanza is found in Scotch "I Will Put My Ship" versions. The last stanza is rare, the lovers unite and plan to do some traveling!
R. Matteson 2016]
THE DROWSY SLEEPER.
"The Drowsy Sleeper" was printed in this Journal in 1907[1] from a copy collected by Miss Pettit in Kentucky (20: 260-261), and attention was called to its connection with a Nithsdale song given in part by Allan Cunningham in his edition of Burns, 1834 (4:285), as well as with a Sussex song and a Catnach broadside. In 1908 Belden printed three versions, two from Missouri and one from Arkansas, in Herrig's "Archiv," 119: 430-431. Other copies have since come in; and these are worth publishing, not only because of the literary relations of the piece, but also because of the curious varieties in which it occurs and its mixture with other songs.
The English song published by Sharp under the title of "Arise, Arise" ("Folk-Songs from Somerset," No. 99, 4: 56-57; "One Hundred English Folksongs," No. 47, pp. 106-107), is related to "The Drowsy Sleeper." Stanza I (Sharp) corresponds to stanza I of version III (p. 341, below); stanza 2, to stanzas 3 and 4; stanza 3, to stanza 5; Sharp's stanza 5 resembles Miss Wyman's stanza 8 (p. 340, below), and his eighth stanza agrees with the last stanza of Belden's version II ("Archiv," 119: 431). Sharp's version agrees pretty closely with the Catnach broadside entitled "The Drowsy Sleeper" (Harvard College, 25242.2, fol. 172). See also "Journal of Folk-Song Society, " I: 269-270 ("O who is that that raps at my window?"). The conclusion of versions IV and V (below) shows admixture of "The Silver Dagger;" [2] and this is true also of a broadside text of "The Drowsy Sleeper," published by H. J. Wehman, New York (No. 518, "Who's at My Bedroom Window?" Harvard College Library).
II. The Drowsy Sleeper. From Miss Loraine Wyman, 1916, as sung by Mary Ann Bagley, Pine Mountain, Kentucky, May, 1916.
1. "Awake, awake, you drowsy sleeper;
Awake, arise, it's almost day.
How can you bear to sleep and slumber,
When your old true love is going away?"
2. "Who's this, who's this at my bedroom window,
That calls for me so earnestly?"
"Lie low, lie low; it's your own true lover:
Awake, arise, and go with me."
3. "Go, love, go and ask your mother
If you my bride can ever be;
If she says no, come back and tell me,
It's the very last time I'll trouble thee."
4. " I dare not go and ask my mother,
Or let her know you are so near;
For in her hand she holds a letter
Against the one I love so dear."
5. "Go, love, go and ask your father
If you my bride can ever be;
If he says no, come back and tell me,
It's the very last time I'll trouble you."
6. "I dare not go and ask my father,
For he lies on his bed of rest,
And by his side lies a deadly weapon
To kill the one that I love best."
7. "I'll set my boat for some distant river,
And I will sail from side to side;
I'll eat nothing but weeping willows
And I'll drink nothing but my tears."
8. "Come back, come back, 0 distracted lover!
Come back, come back," said she;
"I'll forsake my father and mother
And I will run away with thee."
9. "O Mary, loving Mary, you've almost broke my heart;
You caused me to shed many a tear;
From South Carolina to Pennsylvania
My weeks and years with you I'll spend.