Must I Go Bound- (Ulster) 1928 Sam Henry B
[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. Key of E flat.
The gift's stanza (see: Complaining Maid) is stanza 3 but stanza 2 prefaces it. This is mixed with ending stanzas from Died for Love.
R. Matteson 2017]
MUST I GO BOUND? (Girl's version, Sam Henry, 1928)
Must I go bound and you go free?
Should I love them that wouldn't love me?
Or should I act the childish part,
To follow the lad that would break my heart?
Once I heard a fair maid sing
That marriage was a pleasant thing,
But for myself I can't say so,
My wedding day cost me great woe.
The first thing he brought me was a mantle to wear,
It was lined with sorrow and bound with care,
And the drink he gave me was vinegar and gall,
And the blows he gave me were worse than all.
The fields are green and the meadows gay,
The leaves are spreading on every tree,
The time will come and soon it will be,
He'll rue the day he slighted me.
There is a bird sits on yon tree,
Some say it's blind and does not see;
Oh, I wish it had been the case with me
When first I fell into his companie.
I wish and I wish and I wish in vain,
I wish my sweetheart would come again,
He's far away now across the sea,
And my heart is breaking, och, anee!