Hard-hearted Barbery Allen- Havens (TN) 1932 Anderson F
[From: Geneva Anderson. "A Collection of ballads and songs from East Tennessee." Master's Thesis, University of North Carolina, 1932.
This version is different from the other Anderson versions, Cf. Sandburg, 1927; Harmon 1919; and Clark (ON) 1941. I've done some minor arranging of lines.
R. Matteson 2015]
F. Hard-hearted Barbery Allen. Mrs Flora Havens of Binfield, Blount County has long been familiar with this song.
1. Away low down in London town,
In which three maids were dwelling.
There was but one I call my own,
And that was Barbery Allen.
2. I courted her for seven long years
She said she would not have me,
Poor Willie went home and took sick
And there he lay a-dying."
3. They set the table at his bedside,
He wrote her out a letter,
So slow she read, so slow she wept,
"Go tell him I am coming."
4. She went up to his bedside and said,
"Young man I think you're dying,"
He turned his face toward the cold, cold wall,
And burst out crying.
5. She started down them long, long stairs,
And heard them bells a ringing,
And all they seemed to say to her was,
"Hard-hearted Barbery Ellen."
6. She went down to that lonesome grove,
She heard some birds a-singing,
And all they seemed to say to her was,
"Hard-hearted Barbery Ellen."
7. She looked to the east, she looked to the west,
She spied his corpse a-coming,
"Oh bring him hear a little while,
That I may look upon him."
8. The more she looked the more she wept,
And burst out to crying,
I might [1] have saved this young man's life,
And kept him from dying."
9. O mother, O mother go make my bed,
Go make it both long and narrow,
Sweet Willie died for me today,
I will die for him tomorrow."
10. They buried Sweet Willie in the East Chuchyard
And Barbery Ellen in the other,
Their sprang a briar out of sweet Willie's grave[2],
And a red rose out of Barbery's.
11. They grew in length, they grew in strength,
Till they could grow no higher,
They lengthened, they looped in a true lover's knot,
And the rose ran around the briar.
1. originally "might to a saved"- this stanza is fairly corrupt- should end with "duty" or "endeavor".
2. role reversal