The House Carpenter- Griffin (GA-FL) c. 1877 Morris A
[From: Folksongs of Florida; Morris, 1950. Mrs G. A. Griffin was Morris' best informant. She learned many of her folk songs from her father, a fiddler, when she lived in Georgia. Because she was born in 1863 (died in 1944) and left her home moved to Newberry, Florida in 1877, the date should be pre-1877. Alan Lomax also recorded her on his 1939 Southern recording trip.
R. Matteson 2013]
The House Carpenter- As sung by Mrs. G. A. Griffin of GA, then FL around 1877; Morris A.
"Once I could have married a rich man's daughter,
And she would have married me.
But I've just returned from the salt water sea,
All for the love of thee,
all for the love of thee."
"If you will forsake of the house carpenter,
And come go along with me,
[I'll take you] where the grass grows green,
On the banks of the Sweet Malee,
On the banks of the Sweet Malee."
She dressed her babes so near and clean,
And laid them down on a feather bed.
"Lie there, lie there, my darling babes,
To bear your father's company,
To bear your father's company."
She hadn't been on board but about three weeks,
I'm sure hit wasn't four,
Then she weeped, she weeped and she weeped,
Till she weeped most bitterly,
Till she weeped most bitterly.
"Are you weeping for my gold?
Or are you weeping for my store,
Or are you weeping for your little house carpenter
Which you'll never see no more,
Which you'll never see no more?"
"I'm not weeping for my house carpenter;
I'm not weeping for your store;
I'm weeping for my poor little babes,
Which I'll not see any more,
Which I'll not see any more."
She hadn't been gone but about six weeks; [1]
I'm sure it wasn't nine,
Till the boat sprung a leak and it sunk for the deep,
And it sunk to rise no more,
And it sunk to rise no more.
"It's cursed, cursed, to all mankind,
It's cursed to all mankind,
For I'm taken away from my darling babe,
Which I'll never see no more,
Which I'll never see no more."
"What banks, what banks, what banks?" says she.
"What banks as white as snow?"
"It's banks of Heaven, a Heaven on high,
Where all good people go,
Where all good people go."
1. usually it's . . . three weeks
I'm sure it wasn't four, (to rhyme)