English Versions 79. The Wife of Usher's Well
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CONTENTS:
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Bronson 3. THE WIFE OF USHER'S WELL
"There Was a Lady in Merry Scotland"
-ee$9r, 1912, p. 198. Sung by Mrs. Loveridgc, Dilwyn,
Noted by R. Vaughan Williams from phonograph recording.
1. There lived a lady in merry Scotaland,
And shc had sons all three;
And shc sent them out into merry Engeland,
For to learn some English deeds.
; TLey had not becn in a-merry Eng-e-land
For twelve months and one day,
^;--iren the news camc back to their own dear mother
That thcir bodics were in cold clay.
'. q'ill not believe in a man," she said,
"Nor in Christ in cternity,
ai they send rnc back my own three sons,
Aad thc samc as they went from me."
.;d God put life all in their bodies,
Their bodies all in their chest,
r-:,C scnt them back to their own dear mother,
For in heaven they could take no rest.
rr soon as thcy reached to their own mother's gates,
So loud at the bell they ring,
l:rere was none so ready as their own dear mother,
For to loose the children in.
l:'e cloth was sp;ead, thc meat put on;
.No meat, Lord, can we take,
i;".:,cc it's so long and many a day,
Since we have been here before."
li'e bcd was made, the sheets put on;
"No bed, I-ord, can wc take,
r ; icen so long and many a day,
Shce we have been herc before."
l:er Christ did call for the roasted cock,
lirat was feathered with His only (holy?) hands;
.i,c c:owed thrce times all in the dish,
In the place wherc he did stand.
'llen farewell stick and farewcll stone,
Farewell to the maidens all.
ierwell to thc nurse that gavc us our suck";
And down the tears did fall.
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The Wife of Usher’s Well
This is a well known border ballad, that describes the return of the ghosts of three sons who return to their mother at Martinmas. The feast of St. Martin was held on November the eleventh, one of the Scottish quarter days. It is usually referred to as Martinmas but pronounced Martimas. It was the same day as Hallowe'en in the old calendar.
The author and origin of the ballad are not known, but is commonly dated as being 17th century. It first appears in print in Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border (1802).
There lived a wife at Ushers Well,
And a wealthy wife was she;
She had three stout and stalwart sons,
And sent them o'er the sea.
They hadna been a week from her,
A week but barely ane,
Whan word came to the carline wife
That her three sons were gane.
They hadna been a week from her,
A week but barely three,
Whan word came to the carlin wife
That her sons she'd never see.
"I wish the wind May never cease,
Nor (fashes) in the flood,
Till my three sons come home to me,
In earthly flesh and blood,"
It fell about the Martinmass,
When nights are lang and mirk,
The carlin wife"s three sons came hame,
And their hats were o' the birk.
It neither grew in syke nor ditch,
Nor yet in ony sheugh;
But at the gates o Paradise,
That birk grew fair enough
"Blow up the fire, my maidens!
Bring water from the well!
For a' my house hall feast this night,
Since my three sons are well."
And she has made to them a bed,
She's made it large and wide
And she's ta'en her mantle her about,
Sat down at the bed-side.
Up then crew the red, red cock,
And up and crew the gray;
The eldest to the youngest said,
"'Tis time we were away."
The cock he hadna craw'd but once,
And clapp'd his wings at a',
When the youngest to the eldest said,
"Brother, we must awa'.
"The cock doth craw, the day doth daw,
The channerin' worlm doth chide;
Gin we be mist out o' our place,
A sair pain we maun bide.
"Fare ye weel, my mother dear!
Fareweel to barn and byre!
And fare ye weel, the bonny lass
That kindles my mother's fire.
carlin wife = old woman
fashes = troubles
flood = sea
birk = birch
syke = trench
sheugh = furrow
daw = dawn
channerin = grumbling
A sair pain we maun bide: We must expect sore pain
byre: cow shed
Here "The cock doth craw, the day doth daw," having a middle rhyme, can scarcely be of extreme antiquity, probably, in the original poem, the dead return to rebuke the extreme grief of the Mother, but the poem is perhaps really more affecting in the absence of a didactic motive. Scott obtained it from an old woman in West Lothian. Probably the reading "fashes," (troubles), "in the flood" is correct, not "fishes," or "freshes." The mother desires that the sea May never cease to be troubled till her sons return (verse 4, line 2).
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paraphrase of "The wife of Usher’s wife"
posted by manggar baru
I. Paraphrase
In this time, we will try to analyze a poem of “The wife of Usher’s wife”. Actually, “The Wife of Usher's Well" is a traditional ballad, catalogued as Child Ballad 79, originally from Britain, but also popular in North America. No complete original version has survived, but the song as been "remade" in America in a cohesive form.
A ballad is a short narrative poem which is written to be sung and has a simple but dramatic theme. Ballads can be of love, death, the supernatural or even a combination of the three. Many ballads also contain a moral which is expressed in the final stanza.
The ballad concerns a woman from Usher's Well, who sends her three sons away to school in some versions, and a few weeks after learns that they had died. When she finds that they cannot be recovered, she goes mad. The woman grieves bitterly for the loss of her children, cursing the winds and sea. She uses magic to compel their return, but they return as ghosts and must vanish with the morning.
It focuses on the negative effects of obligation. As well as grief and mourning, the common themes of death at the hands of the sea displeasure with the commissioner of the sea voyages, grief, and the supernatural and even common winter time setting. “The Wife of Usher’s Well,” however, portrays a more realistic view of tragedy, obligation and grief. The visitation of three dead sons is notwithstanding.
We also would like to make some notes in lexical meaning of this poem because there are many words that come from old period that we don’t understand. This is the real poem from the source.
The wife of Usher’s wife
There lived a wife at Usher's Well,
And a wealthy wife was she;
She had three stout and stalwart sons,
And sent them over the sea.
They hadna been a week from her,
A week but barely ane,
Whan word came to the carline wife,
That her three sons were gane.
They hadna been a week from her,
A week but barely three,
Whan word came to the carlin wife
That her three sons were gone.
"I wish the wind may never cease,
Nor fashes in the flood,
Till my three sons come hame to me,
In earthly flesh and blood."
It befell about the Martinmass,
When nights are long and mirk,
The carlin wife's three sons came hame,
And their hats were o the birk.
It neither grew in syke nor ditch,
Nor yet in ony sheugh;
But at the gates o Paradise,
That birk grew fair enough
"Blow up the fire my maidens,
Bring water from the well;
For a' my house shall feast this night,
Since my three sons are well."
And she has made to them a bed,
She's made it large and wide,
And she's taen her mantle her about,
Sat down at the bed-side.
Up then crew the red, red, cock,
And up the crew the gray;
The eldest to the youngest said,
'Tis time we were away.
The cock he hadna crawed but once,
And clappd his wings at a',
When the youngest to the eldest said,
Brother, we must awa.
The cock doth craw, the day both daw,
The cahannerin worm doth chide;
Gin we be mist out o our place,
A sair pain we maun bide.
"Fare ye weel, my mother dear!
Fareweel to barn and byre!
And fare ye weel, the bonny lass
That kindles my mother's fire!"
note :
1. usher’s well : evidently a fictitious place-name
2. ane : one
3. carline : old
4. fashes : tumults
5. flood : sea
6. Martinmass : November 11, the feast of the St. Martin
7. Lang : long
8. mirk : dark
9. hame : home
10. birk : birch
11. syke : trench
12. sheigh : furrow
13. channerin : grumbling, fretting
14. sair : sore
15. maun : must
16. bide : endure
17. byre : cattle shed
II. characteristics of period
We can look for certain characteristics that identify a ballad, including these:
· Simple language.
This traditional ballad is composed for audiences of non-specialist hearers or readers. Therefore, they feature language that people can understand without specialist training or repeated readings. When later poets choose to write ballads, regardless of their intended audience, the choice of the ballad form generally implies a similar emphasis on simple language. Sometimes poets write ballads specifically to react against poetry they see as overly intellectual or obscure.
· Stories.
Ballads tend to be narrative poems, poems that tell stories, as opposed to lyric poems, which emphasize the emotions of the speaker.
There lived a wife at Usher's Well,
And a wealthy wife was she;
She had three stout and stalwart sons,
And sent them over the sea.
They hadna been a week from her,
A week but barely ane,
Whan word came to the carline wife,
That her three sons were gane.
· Ballad stanzas.
We get that the traditional ballad stanza consists of four lines, rhymed abcb. The first and third lines have four stresses, while the second and fourth have three.
They hadna been a week from her,
A week but barely ane,
Whan word came to the carline wife,
That her three sons were gane.
· Repetition.
A ballad has a refrain, a repeated section that divides segments of the story. Many ballads also employ incremental repetition, in which a phrase recurs with minor differences as the story progresses.
"Fare ye weel, my mother dear!
Fareweel to barn and byre!
And fare ye weel, the bonny lass
That kindles my mother's fire!"
· Dialogue.
In a narrative genre, ballads often incorporate multiple characters into their stories. Often, since changes of voice were communicated orally, written transcriptions of oral ballads give little or no indication that the speaker has changed. Writers of literary ballads, the later poems that imitate oral ballads, sometimes play with this convention.
Below is the example of dialogue;
"Fare ye weel, my mother dear!
Fareweel to barn and byre!
And fare ye weel, the bonny lass
That kindles my mother's fire!"
· Third-person objective narration.
Ballad narrators usually do not speak in the first person (unless speaking as a character in the story), and they often do not comment on their reactions to the emotional content of the ballad. So, we think that the stanza below is the third-person objective.
"I wish the wind may never cease,
Nor fashes in the flood,
Till my three sons come hame to me,
In earthly flesh and blood."
· Period
Because it describes the return of the ghosts of three sons who return to their mother at Martinmas, the feast of St. Martin was held on November the eleventh, one of the Scottish quarter days. It is usually referred to as Martinmas but pronounced Martimas. It was the same day as Hallowe'en in the old calendar.
We also find that even the author and origin of the ballad are not known, but is commonly dated as being 17th century. It first appears in print in Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border in 1802.
III. conclusion
In conclusion, a Ballad is a short narrative poem which is written to be sung and has a simple but dramatic theme. This Ballad is about love, death, and supernatural that is a combination of the three. There are also characteristics of period in identifying this Ballad, such as the simple language, stories, dialogue, third-person objective narration, and the Period. I think the poem of The wife of Usher’s wife is the old tradition about magic but it contains a tragedy which is so dramatic.