The Unquiet Grave- Clevenger (NJ) 1937 Halpert
[Not a local title- no title given. From: Some Ballads and Folk Songs from New Jersey by Herbert Halpert; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 52, No. 203 (Jan. - Mar., 1939), pp. 52-69. Halpert's notes follow.
R. Matteson 2015]
THE UNQUIET GRAVE (Child 78)
No title given
Recorded from the singing of Allen Clevenger, age 82, near Magnolia, N. J., March 7, 1937. He learned it many years ago from his mother-in-law, Mrs. Grover, nee Cotter, who "came from around Colliers Mill," in Ocean County. Two versions of this ballad are reported from Newfoundland by Greenleaf and Mansfield, No. 10. (See also for English references.) This is the second version to be recorded in the United States and, like the Newfoundland "A" copy, has the feature of the girl weeping on the grave of the man. A version from Kentucky given by John J. Niles in More Songs of the Hill-Folk (G. Schirmer, N. Y., 1936) No. 9, has the man weeping for the girl.
I give the stanza divisions as they were sung. The two lines in the fourth stanza were sung to the first half of the melody and then the singer started afresh for the last stanza. The first two lines in other versions of the ballad have the theme of the wind and the rain. Their omission in this version has obviously dislocated the text up to the fifth stanza.
1. Oh I never had but the one true love,
In the greenwoods he was slain,
I'd do as much for my true love
As any girl would do.
2. I set and weeped all over his grave
Twelve months and one day,
It's when twelve months and one day was up
O this young man he arose,
3. Saying, "Why do you weep all over my grave
For I cannot find no relief?"
"One kiss, one kiss from your clay, clay-cold lips
One kiss is all that I crave,
4. One kiss, one kiss from your clay, clay-cold lips
And then return to your grave."
5. "If I was to give you one kiss,
Oh your days would not be long,
It's for my lips they're clay, clay-cold,
And my breath smells earthli* strong."
.... (Other verses not remembered)
* "Earthli" pronounced with long i.