Silver Dagger- Annis Cottongim (KY) c1924 Roberts
[From: In the Pine, Roberts and Agey, 1978. Some of their notes follow. Neither apparently understand this ballad (see notes where they link this to the British broadsides) although they (Agey) refer to Belden's notes.
R. Matteson 2016]
62. SILVER DAGGER
(Laws G 21)
Reference to this song has been made over the entry "O Molly Dear," since the last stanzas of that ballad have the Romeo and Juliet ending. Called often "Bedroom Window" or "Drowsy sleeper," it has had rather wide broadside distribution in England. The Silver Dagger story could very easily have broken from that text. Regardless of origin, it now has an independent record in the south and west. It began to appear from Kentucky in JAF, 20:267, and then in SharpK, 20. 165, and FSS, no. 109, in the 1920s.
My text was recorded from Miss Annis Cottongim, Knox county, in 1958, from her mother, who had learned it thirty-five years earlier.
Silver Dagger
1. There was a young man who courted young lady,
He loved her as he loved his own life,
He often vowed and declared to her,
She would be his wedded wife.
2. When his parents came to know this,
To break it up they both did try,
Saying, "Son, O son, don't be so foolish,
She is too poor to be Your bride."
3. When this young girt came to know this,
She walked green fields and the meadow round,
She ran till she came to broad, clear deep waters,
At a pleasant place where she sat down.
4. When this young man came to know this,
He walked green fields and the meadow round,
He ran till he came to broad, clear deep waters,
At a pleasant place where he sat down.
5. She picked up her silver dagger,
And placed it through her snow white breast
There she reeled, and there she staggered,
"Farewell, vain world, I'm going to rest."
6. This young man, being on the waters,
He by chance heard her dying groans,
He ran, he ran, till he ran distracted,
"I am ruined at last, I'm left alone."
7. He picked up her bleeding body,
And rolled her over in his arms,
Saying, "There's no friend, no foe can save you,
You must die with all your charms."
8. She turned her pale eyes upon him,
Saying, "True love, true love, you've come too late,
But be prepared to meet on Mount Zion,
Where all our joys will be complete."
9. He picked up her bloody dagger,
And placed it through his lily white breast,
Saying, "Farewell, darling, now I join you,
Farewell, vain world, I'm going to rest."
10. O parents, parents, please take warning,
Don't ever try true love to part,
If you do, you'll surely regret it,
They'll take their own lives for each other's heart.