Must I Go Bound- (Ulster) 1928 Sam Henry A
[From Sam Henry's Songs of the People, ed. Huntington and revised by Lani Herrmann, Univ. Georgia Press, 1990. P. 386. Two versions were published by Sam Henry, one for girls, one for lads. The third stanza is one of the "gift" stanzas.
R. Matteson 2017]
MUST I GO BOUND? --Lad's version, "a retaliatory plagiarism." This version H218b, 1928.
Must I go bound and you go free?
Must I love them that wouldn't love me?
Or could I act a childish part,
And go with Martha that broke my heart?
One day I heard a shepherd sing
That marrying was a very fine thing,
But to my grief I found it so,
That my marriage day soon turned to woe.
The first thing that she brought me was a necktie to wear,
It was lined with sorrow and bound with care,
She brought me vinegar mixed with gall,
And she gave me blows far worse than all.
When I had money, she had part,
When I had none, she had my heart,
The more I wink, sure I am not blind,
When she had money, it was none of mine.
The fields are green and the meadows gay,
The leaves are spreading on every tree,
But the time will come, and then you'll see
She'll be tripping upstairs with gramachree.