Love Has Brought Me To Despair- S. Hubbard (UT) 1874 Hubbard
[From Hubbard, Ballads and Songs from Utah, 1961. His noted follow. This was taken from his mother who contributed 134 songs and ballads and twenty-nine fragments. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2017]
28. LOVE HAS BROUGHT ME TO DESPAIR
For two texts from Indiana and British references, see Brewster, pp. 276-278. under the title "Oxford Tragedy" this song was printed in the Polka Song Book, No. 15, London, 1848 p. 517.
Love Has Brought Me To Despair-- sung by Salley A. Hubbard of Salt Lake City, Sept. 2, 1942. She leaned it when she was a child from her aunt, Mrs. Sarah Call, of Willard.
In Halifax town in Hampshire, Yorkshire,
As I walked out to take the air,
A-viewing the fields and valleys all round,
At length I heard a mournful sound.
My father is a noble lord,
Likewise my mother some lady fair,
And I am the only daughter and heir;
True love has brought me to despair.
I wish I was where I might be,
In my love's arms who's oft kissed me,
In my love's arms who's oft kissed me,
How happy, happy I would be![1]
There is a flower, that I've heard say,
It'll cure sad hearts by night and day.
O, that that flower I could but find,
'Twould ease my heart and cure my mind.
Away into the garden she went,
A-gathering flowers was her intent,
A-gathering flowers just as they fell
Until she gathered her apron full.
She chose the green grass for her bed,
A pillow of roses beneath her head.
She laid herself down bur never again spoke;
Poor girl, poor girl, her heart was broke.
1. This stanza is a corruption of the chorus of "My Blue-Eyed Boy."