O Wake, O Wake- Mrs. L. Grey (VA) 1918 Sharp G
[My title, from English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians I, 1917 and 1932. Collected by Cecil J. Sharp including tunes contributed by Olive Dame Campbell; Karpeles; ed. The 1932 notes follow.
Cf. Sharp F
R. Matteson 2016]
Texts without tunes:— Gavin Greig's Folk-Song of the North East, i, art. 54.Broadside (no imprint). Journal of American Folk-Lore, xx. 260; xxix. 200.Cox's Folk Songs of the South, p. 348 (see also further references).
Texts with tunes :—Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs, i. 225. Journal of the Folk-Song Society; i. 269; iii. 78. Songs of the West, 2nd ed., No. 41. Folk Songs from Somerset, No. 99 (published also in English Folk Songs, Selected Edition, i. 72, and One Hundred English Folk-Songs, p. 106). Folk-Songs of England, v. 12.Journal of American Folk-Lore, xxv. 282 (tune only); xxx. 338 ; xxxv. 356. W. R. Mackenzie's Ballads and Sea Songs of Nova Scotia, No. 99. Sturgis and Hughes's Songs from the Hills of Vermont, p. 30.
G. [O Wake, O Wake] - Sung by Mrs. LAWSON GREY at Montvale, Va., June 4, 1918
Heptatonic. Mixolydian.
1. O wake, O wake, you drowsy sleeper,
Wake up, wake up, for it's almost day.
How can you sleep, you charming sleeper,
Since you have stolen my heart away?
2 O hush, O hush, my mother will hear you,
And that will be sad news to her;
Go off, go off, and court some other,
And whisper low, love, in her ear.
3 I won't, I won't, I won't go away,
For what I say I mean no harm;
I've come to wean (or, win) you from your mother,
And lie and rest you in your true love's arms.
4 O hush, O hush, you'll wake my father,
And that will break him from his night's rest;
He holds a weapon in his right hand
To kill the one that I love best.
5 I wish I was on yonders mountain,
There to spend both months and years;
My food should be all grief and sorrow,
My drink shall be of troubles tears.
6 If I had feet like a sparrow,
If I had wings like a lonesome dove,
I'd fly away over the hills of sorrow,
I'd lie and rest in some low lands of love.