Bluegrass Messengers

US & Canada Versions: 204A. Waly, Waly/ The Water Is Wide

[This section is incomplete for now]

There are no known US & Canada versions per se of the ballad, Jamie Douglas. There are versions of the related song family ("Waly Waly," "The Water is Wide,") with verses that make up Jamie Douglas. The earliest published US text is titled, The Ripest of Apples from Portland, Maine published in Journal of the Folk-Song Society, 1900. A related version titled "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" was copied from a MS dated 1859 (See Cox: Folk-Songs of the South, No. 144).

The standard English (and similar melodic versions have been found in the US) melody of "O Waly Waly" was collected by Cecil Sharp in High Ham in 1905. According to  J. W. Allen in Some Notes on "O Waly Waly": a similar tune to this occurs in a version of "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor" and again in a version of "Young Hunting", both from the Appalachians.

According to Jürgen Kloss who published "The Water Is Wide" The History Of A "Folksong" online in 2010:

The song was also well known in North America. The melody was used for example for teaching the violin (Howe's New Violin Without A Master, 1847, p. 111). Swedish Opera singer Christina Nilsson performed it her concerts and her version was published in 1870 in The Authorized Edition of [her] Songs as sung by her in America (available at the Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music), but with a new tune written by one Jacques Blumenthal. Ralph Waldo Emerson included the text in his poetry anthology Parnassus (1875, p. 382). Later Carl Sandburg  introduced a minimalist version in his American Songbag (1927, p. 16). The tune is completely different and for some reason the verse with the "cockle shells" has returned:

When cockle shells turn silver bells,
Then will my love return to me.
When roses blow, in wintry snow,
Then will my love return to me.
Oh, waillie! waillie!
But love is bonnie
A little while when it is new!
But it grows old and waxeth cold,
And fades away like evening dew.

"Oh Waly, Waly" survived into the 20th century and was also recorded during the Folk Revival era, for example by Hermes Nye (Early English Ballads From The Percy And Child Collections, 1957, Folkways FW 02305), by Peggy Seeger & Ewan MacColl (Two-Way Trip, 1961, Folkways FW 08755) and by John Jacob Niles whose eccentric version was first released in 1953 on American Folk Love Songs to Dulcimer Accompaniment (Boone-Tolliver BTR-22, 10" LP) and then in 1959 on An Evening With John Jacob Niles (Tradition TLP1036, available at amazon.co.uk).

Here are a list of the titles of related US and Canadian songs:

"Waly Waly" "Wailie, Wailie"
"Cockle Shells," "When Cockleshells Turn Silver Bells"
"I Wish I Was a Child Again"
"The Ripest of Apples"
"The Water is Wide" Pete Seeger 1958 REC (based on English version)
"Maggie Goddon"
"Must I Go Bound"
"O Love Is Teasin' " Jean Ritchie (KY) REC
"Love is Easy" Fowke (Canada)
"There is a Tavern in the Town," "Every Night When the Sun Goes In" (NC) 1918
"The Brisk Young Lover" (NC) Gentry
"Love Has Brought Me to Despair"
"My Blue-Eyed Boy" Hewitt (NE) 1905 Pound; also see Belden; see also Randolph
"William Hall" English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, No. 171, version D . vol. II, p. 242.

CONTENTS:

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From: "The Water Is Wide" The History Of A "Folksong"- Jürgen Kloss 2010
We have even one single version from North America, another fragment of two verses that were recorded by Cecil Sharp from the singing of Jane Gentry in 1916 in North Carolina (Smith 1998, p. 157):

As I walked out one morning in May,
A-gathering flowers all so gay,
I gathered white and I gathered blue,
But little did I know what love can do.

Seven ships on the sea,
Heavy loaded as they can be,
Deep in love as I have been,
But little do I care if they sink or swim.

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In Belden, "Ballads and Songs Collected by the Missouri Folk-Lore Society," the "Must I go (be) bound" verse appears in three of the four versions of the "The Blue-Eyed Boy" that he collected in 1909-1911.  Two involve a girl who is going away and in one the boy departs, leaving "an orphant girl without a home."

In a footnote, Belden suggests the song goes back to the 17th c. (Roxburghe Ballads VII 104-5), but not which verse(s). he does say "divers images or motifs seem to have been gathered around a refrain stanza (Bring me back the blue-eyed boy) which gives the name to the song."

American Ballads and Songs- Pound

102. My Blue-Eyed Boy. From a manuscript book of songs from oral transcription in the possession of Sadie Thurman Hewitt of Brokenbow, Nebraska. Transcribed under the date of February, 1905.

102. MY BLUE-EYED BOY

There is a tree I love to pass,
And it has leaves as green as grass,
But not as green as love is true;
I love but one and that is you.

Bring to me my blue-eyed boy!
Bring, 0 bring him back to me!
Bring to me my blue-eyed boy,
What a happy, happy girl I'd be.

Must I go bound and he go free?
Must I love one that don't love me?
Or must I act a childish part
And love the one that broke my heart?

Go bear, go bear, go bear in mind
That a good true friend is hard to find,
And when you find one good and true
Never change the old one for the new.

Adieu, adieu kind friends, adieu,
I can no longer stay with you.
I'll hang my heart in a willow tree,
And give it to the one that first loved me.

--------------------------
"My Blue-Eyed Boy" (Randolph, vol. IV, "Ozark Folksongs – Religious Songs and Other Items, University of Misouri, 1980, pp 260-262.

Version A – Sung by Mrs. Elizabeth Brayman, Springfield, Mo., July 5, 1933. Mrs. Brayman learned the song from her sister at Eureka Springs, Ark., about 1900.

It's like a ring that has no end,
It's hard to find a constant friend,
But when you find one good and true,
Don't nev-er change 'em for the new.

Shall I go bound, shall I go free?
Shall I love a man that don't love me?
Or shall I act a childish part
An' love the man that broke my heart?

Last night my true love promised me
To take me o'er the deep blue sea,
An' now he's left me all alone,
A orphan girl without no home.

Go dig my grave both wide an' deep,
Put margery stones at my head an' feet,
An' on my breast a snow-white dove,
To show the world I died for love.

Version B- Sung by Mrs. W. E. Jones, Pineville, Mo., Feb 14, 1928.

Must I go bound while he goes free,
Must I love him when he don't love me?
An' must I act a childish part
To love him when he broke my heart?

Go bring me back the one I love,
Go brink my darlin' back to me,
Go bring me back my blue-eyed boy,
An' I will ever happy be.

Version C- Sung by Miss Reba McDonald, Farmington, Ark., Feb 10, 1942.

It's true, the ring has no end,
It's hard to find a faithful friend,
But when you find one good and true
Change not the old one for the new.

Bring back by blue-eyed boy to me,
Bring back by blue-eyed boy to me,
Bring back by blue-eyed boy to me,
That I may ever happy be

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EVERY NIGHT WHEN THE SUN GOES IN- "Every Night when the Sun goes in," in English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, No. 189, vol. II, p. 268. (see also Careless Love)

Every night when the sun goes in (3 times)
I hang down my head and mournful cry.
True love, don't weep, true love, don't mourn (3 times)
True love, don't weep nor mourn for me,
I'm going away to Marble town.

I wish to the Lord that train would come (3 times)
To take me back where I come from.
True love, don't weep, etc.

It's once my apron hung down low (3 times)
He'd follow me through both sleet and snow.
True love, don't weep, etc.

It's now my apron's to my chin (3 times)
He'll face my door and won't come in.
True love, don't weep, etc.
I wish to the Lord my babe was born,
A-sitting upon his pappy's knee,
And me, poor girl, was dead and gone,
And the green grass growing over me.
True love, don't weep, etc.

from English Folk Songs in the Appalachian Mountains, Sharp
Collected from Mrs. Effie Mitchell, Burnsville, NC 1918
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"The Brisk Young Lover". In English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians collected by Cecil Sharp, vol. II, p. 77, Version B, 1933. Sung by Mrs. Jane Gentry, Hot Springs, N.C., on August 25th, 1916. Miss Karpeles informs me that this is only the last verse of a complete text of "The Brisk Young Lover"

Must I go bound,
Must I go free?
Must I have a young man
That won't love me? 
Oh no, oh no,
That can never be;
Till Apples grow,
On an orange tree.

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 "Lord Thomas and Fair Ellinor." In English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, No. 19, verses A and C, vol. I, page 115.

"Young Hunting," in English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, No. 38, version H., vol. 1, p. 110.

"William Hall", in English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, No. 171, version D . vol. II, p. 242. However, since this is the only verse, it may not be connected with "William Hall".

 See, for example, "Come all you fair and tender ladies", in English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians, No. 118, vol. II, p. 128, et seq.

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Report of the Second Meeting of the Folk-Song Society
by J. A. Fuller Maitland
Journal of the Folk-Song Society, Vol. 1, No. 2 (1900), pp. 27-31+43-51

The next song I have to show you has performed a long journey in getting back to what I have no doubt is the country of its origin. It comes from our honorary member, Mr. H. C. Mercer, of Philadelphia, and he describes it as a 'Down East' coat song from the neighbourhood of Portland, Maine. It is called; The Ripest of Apples,'* and the couplet with which it begins occurs in a good many ballads, such as 'The Jolly Sailor's Wedding,' the fifth verse of which, so Mr. Kidson tells me, runs:

'Ripest apples, soones rotten,
Hottest love, oonest cold;
Too fond maids are easy counselled
Though they're slighted when they're old.'

And in a Norfolk song, 'Twenty, eighteen,' in 'English County Songs.' the last verse is:

'Ho I the ripest apple is the soonest rotten,
The hottest love is the soonest cold,
Lovers' vows are soon forgotten,
So I pray, young man, be not too bold.'

Th adage seems to be used in many different ways, but there is little doubt that these three verses which Miss Bichel is going to sing to you are but a fragment of some longer ballad; as they stand, however, they make a very pretty song.

The Ripest of Apples.
'Down East' coast song, from the neighbourhood of Portland. Maine.

O the ripest of apples, they must soon * grow rotten,
And the warmest of love, it must soon * grow cold;
And young men's vows they must soon * be forgotten,
Look out, pretty maiden, that you don't get controlled,

The seas they are deep, [1]
And I cannot wade them,
Neither nor have I
The wings to fly.
But I wish I could find [1]
Some jolly, jolly boatsman,[2]
To ferry me over,
My love and I.

Oh I wish that me [1]
And my love was a sailin'
As far as the eye
Could discern from the shore.
A sailin' so far [1]
Across the blue ocean,
Where no cares nor troubles
Wouldn't bother us no more.

* 'Soon,' markedly peculiar, pronounced not unlike the German 'dunn.'
1. Strong accent, dwelling on note.
2. 'Boats,' pronounced in New England coast dialect to rhyme with French 'bottes.'
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"I Wish I Was a Child Again" collected by Cecil Sharp 1918 from Jake Sowder.

I wish I wish, I wish in vain,
I wish I was a child again;
But that I ain't and never will be,
Till apples grow on a willow tree.

Your gold shall rust and silver shall fly,
But constant love will never die.

I Wish, I Wish [Sh 273]

Rt - Water Is Wide ; I Am a Rover (and That's Well Known) ; Foolish Young Girl
Costello, Cecilia. Williams, R. Vaughan; & A. L. Lloyd (eds.) / Penguin Book of English Fol, Penguin, Sof (1959), p 53 [1951]
Kennedy, Norman. Ballads and Songs of Scotland, Folk Legacy FSS 034, LP (1968), trk# 3 (Student Boy Cam' Courting Me)
Langstaff, John. Langstaff, John / Lark in the Morn, Revels CD 2004, CD (2004), trk# 3 [1949-56] (I Wish I Was a Child Again)
Provance, F. P. (Fillmore Peter). Korson, George (ed.) / Pennsylvania Songs and Legends, Univ. of Penna., Bk (1949), p 48 [1943] (I Wish in Vain)
Robertson, Jeannie. Queen Among the Heather, Rounder 1720, CD (1998), trk# 2 [1953/11] (When My Apron Hung Low)
Sowder, Jake. Sharp & Karpeles / English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians II, Oxford, Bk (1932/1917), p383/# 273 [1918/08/17] (I Wish I Was a Child Again) 

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Folk Songs of the South: Contributed by Mr. W. E. Boggs, Matewan, Mingo County, 1918. Learned  about forty years ago from his brother, who was killed shortly after at Ashland,  Kansas, by cowboys. Compare "Youth and Folly" (p. 422).


"Maggie Goddon" from Cox's collection of West Virginian folk songs. [18] Unfortunately Cox gives no tune; and the chorus he gives is irrelevant to the present discussion.

Folk Songs of the South. From MR. W. E. BOGGS,
Ed. J. H. Cox (1925). Mingo County. 1918.

MAGGIE GODDON

1. I wish I was once a-sailing
As far from land as far could be,
Far across the deep blue waters,
Where I have no one to trouble me.

Ch. Sweet Maggie Goddon, you are my bride;
Come set you down upon my knee,
Tell to me the very reason
Why I was slighted just by thee.

2. The sea is deep I can't swim over,
Neither have I the wings to fly;
There I hear some jolly sportsman,
To carry over the love and I.

3. I wish I had a glass of brandy,
I'll tell to you the reason why;
While drinking, I am thinking,
Does my true love remember me?

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"Love Has Brought Me to Despair." In Folk-Songs of the South, No. 144, edited by J. H. Cox, 1925; "Communicated by Mrs. Parker, New Haven . . . 'I have copied this song from a quaint old MS. dated Feb. 20th, 1859'." See verses 6 and 7.

Folk Songs of the South

144. LOVE HAS BROUGHT ME TO DESPAIR

This is a remarkably full version of the English song "A Brisk Young Sailor " —  that song which, in an abbreviated form, is known as "There is an alehouse in yonder town" (or, in this country, as "There is a tavern in the town"). For English texts, longer or shorter, see Bebbington's broadside No. 193 (Manchester); Kidson, Traditional Tunes, pp. 44, 46; Leather, The Folk-Lore of Herefordshire, p. 205 ; Sharp, One Hundred English Folksongs, No. 94; Sharp, English Folk Songs, n, 40; R. Vaughan Williams, Folk-Songs from the Eastern Counties,  p. 9; Butterworth, Folk Songs from Sussex, p. 14; Broadwood, English Tradi-
tional Songs and Carols, p. 92; Kidson and Neal, English Folk-Song and Dance,  p. 57; Journal of the Folk-Song Society ,1, 252; 11, 155, 158, 168; in, 188; v, 181,  183, 184, 188.

The usual opening of the song (when it does not begin at once with the alehouse, stanza 4 of the present text) is as follows — to quote the Bebbington broadside:

A brisk young sailor courted me,
He stole away my liberty,
He stole my heart with a free good will,
I must confess I love him still.

Instead of this, the West Virginia version has three quite different stanzas.  These seem to be adapted from some form of the old ballad entitled "The Famous Flower of Serving-Men" (Child, No. 106), in which we find:

2 I was by birth a lady fair,
My father's chief and onely heir,
But when my good old father dy'd,
Then was I made a young knight's bride.

5 My servants all from me did flye,
In the midst of my extremity,
And left me by my self alone,
With a heart more cold then any stone.

19 My father was as brave a lord
As ever Europe did afford;
My mother was a lady bright,
My husband was a valient knight.

One English text (Folk-Song Society; n, 158) agrees in part with the West Virginia song at this point, having as stanza 1:

Her father bin a noble knight:
Her mother bin a lady bright:
I bin an only child of her
False lover brought me to despair.

Stanzas 8-10 of our West Virginia text recur in the English broadside ballad "Sheffield Park" (Catnach; Jackson & Son, Birmingham; Gillington, Eight  Hampshire Folk-Songs, p. 14), which is the direct ancestor of "The Butcher Boy"  (see p. 430, below). These stanzas, however, are all found in some other versions of "A Brisk Young Sailor." The opening stanza of "Sheffield Park" runs  as follows:

In Sheffield Park O there did dwell
A brisk young lad, I loved him well,
He courted me my love to gain,
He 's gone and left me full of pain.

The concluding stanza in the West Virginia text, though found in several of the English versions, probably does not belong to this piece. It is a ballad commonplace. In "The Forlorn Lover," for instance, a seventeenth-century broadside lament, which shows some elusive resemblance to our song, we find:

O dig me a grave that is wide, large, and deep,
With a turf at my head, and another at my feet!
There will I lie, and take a lasting sleep,
And so bid her Farewel for ever. [1]
 

1. Bagford collection (Ebsworth, Roxburghe Ballads, vi, 233, stanza 11); entered in  the Stationers' Register, March 5, 1675 (Eyre, Transcript, 11, 499; Rollins, Index, No.  907).

A similar stanza, or stanzas, occurs also in several versions of "The Twa Brothers" (Child, No. 49) and of "Sir Hugh" (Child, No. 155).

"A Brisk Young Sailor" has significant points of contact with the seventeenth-century broadside (Pepys, v, 217) "An excellent New Song, called Nelly's Constancy; or, Her Unkind Lover" (Ebsworth, Roxburghe Ballads, vr, 791).

For references see Journal, xxix, 170; Broadwood, Journal of the Folk-Song Society, v, 185.

Communicated by Mrs. Walter Parker, New Haven, Mason County, July 29,  1916. She writes: "I have copied this song from a quaint old manuscript dated February 20, 1859, and signed Robert B. Welch. He was a Civil War veteran and died several years ago. I have copied it exactly, except all the s's were z's in the manuscript and most of the words began with capitals."

1 My father he is a wealthy knight,
My mother she is a lady bright,
And I their child, their only heir,
But love has brought me to despair.

2 I was courted by a wealthy knight,
Who at my beauty took delight;
He courted me both night and day,
Until my heart he did betray.

3 But now he has left me all alone,
A discontented life to mourn.
I 'll mourn for him — no other one —
As long as I have life to mourn.

4 There is a tavern in the town,
Where goes my love and there sits down;
He takes strange girls upon his knee,
And is not that a grief to me?

5 A grief to me, I'll tell you why,
Because they have more gold than I;
But gold will melt and silver fly,
But constant love will never fly.

6 Down in the meadow, I've heard some say,
There is a rose blooms night and day;
Down in the meadow she quickly ran,
Picking flowers as they sprang.

7 She picked of purple, she picked of green,
She picked of every kind she seen,
She picked of red, she picked of blue,
But little thought what love could do.

8 Now these green flowers must be your bed,
The heavens is your coverlet.
Almighty, mourn, O mourn for me,
mourn unto eternity!

9 Now when they found that she was cold,
They went to her first love and told:
"I am glad she is dead, I wish her well,
I hope her soul may land in hell."

10 O cruel man, what 's that you say?
She has wished you many a happy day,
Whilst on your bosom she breathless lay,
When your poor soul be tost away.

11. They dug her grave both wide and deep,
A marble slab laid at her feet,
A turtle dove sit on her breast,
To let him know she has gone to rest.

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Folk Songs of the South: 141.  YOUTH AND FOLLY

This song is a counterpart to "Little Sparrow," from which it has borrowed certain stanzas (see p. 419). In "Youth and Folly" the young man is the sufferer. Stanza 2 belongs to the famous Scottish song, "0 Waly, Waly, gin Love be Bonny" (see Child, iv, 92, 93), but occurs also in some texts of "Little Sparrow." Cf. Sharp, One Hundred English Folksongs, No. 39; Folk-Songs from
Somerset, in, $y, Journal of the Irish Folk-Song Society, vra, 16. For stanza 5  cf. "Maggie Goddon" (p. 424). The first stanza corresponds to the last of  "Young Riley" in modern English broadsides (Catnach; Such, No. 83; Fortey);  see "George Reilly" (p. 313).

Communicated by Miss Lalah Lovett, Bulltown, Braxton County, 1916; obtained from John N. Wine, who learned it from his father.

1 Youth and folly make youngsters marry,
And when they're married they must obey;
For many a bright and sunshiny morning
Has turned to a dark and rainy day.

2 O love is warming, O love is charming,
Love 's quite handsome while it 's new !
But as love grows older, love grows colder,
And fades away like the morning dew.

3 It was all in the sweet month of April,
While summer flowers were in their bloom,
Trees were budding, sweet birds were singing:
Times ain't with me as they have been.

4 Great Jehovah, have mercy on me !
My comrades, come to set me free;
I never courted but one fair lady;
Her name was Polly, she told me.

5 Polly, O Polly, you are my darling!
Come set yourself down awhile by me,
And tell to me the very reason
Why I was slighted so by thee.

6 I am in love, I dare not own it,
The very pain lies on my breast;
I am in love, and the whole world knows it,
That a troubled mind can find no rest.

7 I wish to God I never had seen you,
Or in my cradle I had died;
To think as nice a young man as I am
Should be in love and be denied.

8 I wish I was on some stormy ocean,
As far from land as I could be;
And sailing for some better country
Where there no grief could trouble me.
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140 YOUNG LADIES (LITTLE SPARROW)

American texts of this song (sometimes called "Little Sparrow") have been printed or recorded as follows: Journal, xxix, 184 (Tolman; one stanza in an Indiana version of "There is a Tavern in the Town"), 200 (Rawn and Peabody; Georgia) ; Wyman and Brockway, p. 55 (Kentucky) ; Campbell and Sharp, No. 65 (North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee) ; McGill, p. 23 (Kentucky) ; Sharp,  American-English Folk-Songs, 1st Series, p. 32 (the same as Campbell and  Sharp, No. 65 A); Child MSS., 1, 84 (North Carolina); Minish MS., ill, 35  (North Carolina); Belden, No. ^d> (Missouri); Shearin and Combs, p. 26  (Kentucky).

The piece is somehow related to the celebrated Scottish song "0 Waly, Waly,  gin Love be Bonny" (Child, rv, 92), printed in the early part of the eighteenth  century, but even then regarded as old. Stanza 3 of the Scottish song corresponds to West Virginia A 8, B 3; stanza 9 (not in the West Virginia texts) to lines 17-20 of the Wyman text (McGill, stanza 5; Campbell and Sharp, B 5,
and the sole stanza of E; Minish, stanza 5). "Waly, Waly" stands in close  relation to "James Douglas" (Child, No. 204).

"Young Ladies." Communicated by Mr. J. H. Shaffer, Newburg, Preston County, who obtained it from Mrs. A. R. Fike, Terra Alta.

1 Come all ye fair and handsome ladies,
Take warning how you court young men;
For they're like a bright star on a summer's morning,
They first appear and then they're gone.

2 They'll tell to you some flattering story,
And swear to God that they love you well,
And away they'll go and court some other,
And leave you here in grief to dwell.

3 I wish to God I never had seen him,
Or in his cradle he had died;
For to think so fair and handsome lady,
Was one in love and be denied.

4 I wish I was in some tall mountain,
Where the ivy rock is black as ink;
I would write a letter to my false lover,
Whose cheeks are like the morning pink.

5 I wish I was some little sparrow,
And one of them that could fly so high;
I would fly away to my true love's dwelling,
And when he would speak I would be close by.

6 1 would flutter in his bosom
With my little [ex] tended wings;
I would ask him, I would ask him,
Whose tender heart he had tried to stain.

7 My troubles now are just beginning,
My troubles like some mountain tall;
O I'll sit down in grief and sorrow,
And there I'll talk my troubles o'er.

8 Love is handsome, love is charming,
Love is beauty while it's new;
Love grows older, love grows colder,
Fades away like morning dew.

No local title. Communicated by Mr. Guy Overholt, Erwin, Preston County,  who obtained it from Mr. Ralph Buckley, Buckeye, Pocahontas County.

1. Come all ye fair and handsome ladies,
Be careful how you trust young men,
For they are like a star upon a summer's morning,
They disappear and then are gone.

2 They tell to you some tattling stories,
And then declare they love you well;
This is the way they go and love some other,
And leave you in this world to mourn.

3 O love is handsome, love is charming,
And love is pretty while it lasts;
But love grows cold as love grows older,
And fades away like morning dew.

4 I wish to God I never had seen him,
Or in my cradle I had died,
To think a fair and handsome lady,
Was stricken with love and then denied.

5. I wish I were on some tall mountain,
Where the marble stones are black as ink;
I 'd write a letter to my false lover,
Whose cheeks are like the morning pink.

6. If I were just a little sparrow,
Or some of those that fly so high,
I'd fly away to my false lover,
And when he 'd speak I would deny.

7. But I am none of those little sparrows,
Or none of those that fly so high,
So I'll sit down in grief and sorrow,
And pass all my troubles by.

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Sandburg's American Songbag- 1927:

WAILLIE, WAILLIE!

When cockle shells turn silver bells,
Then will my love return to me.
When roses blow, in wintry snow,
Then will my love return to me.

Oh, waillie! waillie!
But love is bonnie
A little while when it is new!
But it grows old and waxeth cold,
And fades away live evening dew.

Sandburg's notes: An arrangement of an old-time British piece as made known by Daniel Read and Isadora Bennett Read of Chicago, Illinois, and Columbia, South Carolina. Its stately diction might be compared to certain laced ladies and ruffled gentlemen imprisoned in fine porcelain works of England a century or two ago. It is a deep heart cry, too profound and prolonged to be called poignant, yet shaken with memory of passion.
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Water Is Wide
sung by Almeda Riddle (Granny Riddle's Songs and Ballads)

Now the water's wide and I can't cross over
Neither have I the wings to fly
But give me a boat that will carry two
And we both will row, my love and I

I leaned my back against an oak
Thinking it was a trusty tree
But first it bent, then it broke
So has my false true love for me

O the water's wide and I can't cross over
And neither do I have the wings to fly
But give me a boat that will carry two
And we both will row, my love and I

I put my hand into a bush
Thinking the fairest flower to find
But I pricked my finger to the bone
And I left the fairest flower behind

O the water's wide and I can't cross over
And neither do I have the wings to fly
But give me a boat that will carry two
And we both will row, my love and I

Now there's a ship that sails the sea
She's laden down as a ship can be
But not more..... than the love I'm in
And I don't know if I'll sink or swim

O the water's wide and I can't cross over
And neither do I have the wings to fly
But give me a boat that will carry two
And we both will row, my love and I
-------------------

O Love Is Teasin'- Jean Ritchie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrM5iXZQb5A

O love is teasing and love is pleasing
And love's a pleasure when first it is new
But as love grows older it still grows colder
And fades away like the morning dew

Come all you fair maids, now take a warning
Don't ever heed what a young man say
He's like a star on some foggy morning
You think he's near he's far away

I left my father, I left my mother
I left my brothers and sisters too.
I left my home and my fond relations,
Oh my young man, for the sake of you

O love is pleasing and love is teasing
And love's a pleasure when first it is new
But as love grows older, it soon grows colder
And fades away like the morning dew

Oscar Brand & Jean Ritchie O Love Is Teasin'. Rereleased on Mountain Hearth and Home EKLP 2 - Jean Ritchie Singing the Traditional Songs of Her Kentucky Mountain Family - Jean Ritchie [1952] O Love Is Teasin'

Mountain Hearth & Home collects most of the material from her three albums for Elektra Records, which were released between 1952 and 1962, and the tracks are roughly chronological.

Ritchie: "O Love is Teasin," from my very first recording (also Elektra's first record)...issued in 1952, a 10" lp. In fact I believe, O Love is Teasin was the album title! It is almost as you sing it, which makes me wonder where you learned it!!! I myself learned it from Peggy Staunton, a lovely Irishwoman who worked in the kitchen at the Henry Street Settlement where I had my first NYC job (I majored in social work and that's why I came to NY from KY in the first place...). Peggy was a beautiful singer, and we'd usually end up step-dancing round the big diningroom after all the important folks left.

05 LOVE IS TEASING- Peggy Seeger

words and music: traditional USA
O. Love is Teasin'© Arr., additional words, music, Jean Ritchie. From the singing of Peggy Stanton (born Co. Sligo, Eire) at Henry St. Settlement, NYC, in 1947.

Love is teasing, love is pleasing
Love is a jewel when first 'tis new
But love grows older then waxes colder
And fades away like morning dew.

I left my father, I left my mother
I left my brothers and sisters too
I left my home and kind relations
I left them all just to follow you.

O, if I'd known before I courted
That love had-a been such a killin' thing
I'd have locked my heart in a box of golden
And pinned it up with a silver pin.

I never thought when love was a-borning
That it would grow wings and fly away
How many a bright sunshiny morning
Turns out a dark and a dreary day.

So girls, beware of false true lovers
And never mind what they do or say
They're like the stars on a summer's morning
You think they're near and they're far away.

Love is teasing, love is pleasing
Love is a jewel when first 'tis new
But love grows older then waxes colder
And fades away like morning dew.

Peggy says she learned the tune of "Love Is Teasing" from the influential traditional singer, Jean Ritchie. Jean sings it in her "high lonesome" Appalachian style but actually learned "O Love Is Teasin'" (her version of the song) in 1946 from Peggy Staunton, an Irish kitchen and dining-room worker at New York City's Henry Street Settlement. Jean, a young social worker from Kentucky, lived at the Settlement's dorm when she first arrived in the city. As Jean reminisces in an internet discussion on Mudcat Café (topical thread "New Book/CD: 'The Rose & The Briar'"), "we used to swap songs and jig-steps in the dining room after everybody else had gone."

The words of "Love is Teasing" resemble those found in three similar songs, "O Waly, Waly," "The Water is Wide," and "Down in the Meadows" and all of these can be traced back to the ballad "Jamie Douglas" (Child 204). In "Jamie Douglas," a bride has been falsely accused of infidelity and is sent back to her father with an aching heart. All of the shorter songs have whittled away the narrative over time leaving nothing but an emotional core. Various versions journeyed back and forth between Ireland, Britain, and North America, and singers often augment whatever verses they have learned with others from a common stock of associated "floating" verses. Peggy has done this here, giving her unique stamp to a universal emotion. Songs of this sort, in which narrative plays no role and emotions are conveyed through rich imagery, are called lyric songs and play an important role in British and American repertoire.

-------------
This iteration, titled Love is Easy, was collected in Ontario by Canadian folklorist Edith Fowke.

The last verse"

Come all you fair maids from distant counties
, Don't you believe all young men say,
For like the stars on a frosty evening,
You think they're near when they're far away.

is very similar to a verse in " Fair and Tender Ladies"

"Come all ye fair and tender ladies>br>Take warning how you court young men
They're like the stars on a summer evening
They first appear and then they're gone

Love is Easy

Over hills and far off mountains
Over hills and valleys, too,
A voice came to a fair one's window
Saying, "Rise up, fair one, and let me in." 

   Refrain
   Love is easy, love is teasing
   Love is pleasing while it's new.
   As it grows older, it soon grows colder
   And fades away like the morning dew.

He rose early the next morning
He arose at the break of day.
He gave her gold and he gave her silver
Saying, "Rise up, fair one, I must away."

"Come back, come back, fondest lover,
Come back, come back and marry me."
"I'll come back when the ocean dries, love.
I'll come back and I will marry thee."

I left my father and my mother
I left my sisters and brothers, too,
I left my friends and my fond relations,
I left them all for the love of you.

Come all you fair maids from distant counties,
Don't you believe all young men say,
For like the stars on a frosty evening,
You think they're near when they're far away.


---------------
Subject: RE: The Water is Wide - one more time!
From: Malcolm Douglas
Date: 23 May 02 - 10:50 AM

If by The Water is Wide you mean members of the song-family that contain that particular verse, then it won't have travelled to the US with Irish emigrants, as it appears to be a uniquely English variant (though I am of course ready to proved wrong on this). Sharp found it in the South of England; the well-known and much-recorded tune came from Mrs. Caroline Cox at High Ham, Somerset, in August 1905. The only variant beginning with those words listed in the Roud Folksong Index from outside England is a recording of Almeda Riddle from the 1970s: I don't know where she got it.
The Traditional Ballad Index mentions three examples that might perhaps be American:

Peggy Seeger, American Favorite Ballads: Tunes and Songs as sung by Pete Seeger (1961), p. 77, "The Water Is Wide" (1 text, 1 tune). I don't know if the book names the traditional source, if any, but Pete Seeger certainly didn't restrict himself to American songs!

Irwin Silber, Folksinger's Wordbook (1973), p. 145, "Waillie"; p. 163, "The Water Is Wide" (2 texts). The editors of the TBI comment: This book gives no source information at all about the songs contained, and at least some seem to have been edited. Useless for your purposes, then.

The most likely vector of transmission for this particular form of the song would be Cecil Sharp's book, One Hundred English Folksongs, which was published in the USA by the Oliver Ditson Company of Boston in 1916, and which contained Mrs. Cox' set, titled (because of its perceived relationship to the Scottish song) O Waly Waly. The folksong revival of the 1950s and thereafter will also have spread it around quite a lot, during which process the details of its provenance will often have been forgotten, ignored or misrepresented.

Of course, other members of the song family, lacking the Water is Wide part, were in America earlier on; Sharp got a two-verse fragment in the Appalachians in 1916, but didn't publish it, and a few others have turned up since. I would imagine that they mostly derived from Scottish forms, but I haven't seen the texts.

-----------------
It turns out that I gave much of the above information in another discussion a while back (this song does come up rather often, with many of the same misconceptions being repeated by different people): RE: Water is wide: song history request. I mentioned there that Pete Seeger learned his set from his sister Peggy; she probably got it from one of Sharp's books, either directly or at some remove. He added a verse from somewhere or other. I also went into more detail on the Somerset text published by Sharp.

Having also re-found Bruce Olson's very useful post on the song (Re: "Waly waly", "The Water is Wide" and "Love is Pleasing") I can add a little to my previous comments in this thread.

The Water is Wide verse turns up in The Ripest of Apples, a song collected near Portland, Maine (no date or source given), which appeared in The Journal of the Folk Song Society, vol.I no.2 (1900). Whether it's a bona-fide member of the family or just a fortuitous collection of floating verses is hard to tell (it's usually classed separately nowadays), though J. W. Allen, (Some Notes on "O Waly Waly", Journal of the Folk-Song Society, vol.7, no.3, 1954) considered it part of the group. He also printed another song from the US, Maggie Gordon, which contained the Water is Wide verse; I haven't seen the article yet, but will try to pick it up in the next few days .

Bruce posted the Maine song here: The Ripest of Apples. Also in that thread is a similar Ulster set with the same title, from Songs of the People: the tunes are clearly related to each other, but not, so far as I can tell, to the English song. A form of the Water is Wide verse appeared in a number of broadside versions of I'm often Drunk and Seldom Sober in first half of the 19th century; A.L. Lloyd considered these to be mere collations of floating verses. A number of examples can be seen at Bodleian Library Broadsides; here is one:

I'm often drunk, but seldom sober ("The sea is wide and I can't get over...") Printed by Liptrot of St. Helen's, date unknown.

It's perhaps worth noting here that the Canadian song, Peggy Gordon, contains some of the material in the broadside.
-------------

Bruce Olson's post Re: "Waly waly", "The Water is Wide" and "Love is Pleasing"

"Picking Lillies" in Logan's 'Pedlar's Pack', p. 336, does not contain the verse "The water is wide", but add it on and you have the basis of several other versions. (Three verses of Logan's song are in 'Scot Musical Museum', #563. Allen, noted below, reprints these and the tune. Another copy of Logan's song is in the Roxburghe collection III, 421, entitled "A New Love Song") Several of the verses are from 17th century broadside ballads.

Perhaps the best I can do is give reference to an article in Journal of the Folk-Song Society, 8, pp. 161-71 (1954), by J. W. Allen, 'Some Notes on "O Waly Waly"' where he commences his first section 'Down in the Meadows' with a broadside text quite similar to Logan's.

His next section is 'The Water is Wide' which contains a traditional song with "The Water is Wide" verse, "Maggie Gordon" (from U.S.). Allen's next version in this section, from Cecil Sharp's MSS, probably stems from a version very much like the 19th century stall copy printed by A. L. Lloyd in 'Folk Song in England', another conflation. His title is "I'm always drunk and seldom Sober". [Barely related to Greig-Duncan #783. A version of this latter sung by Ewan MacColl, (Folkways FW 8759) obtained from a James Grant of Aberdour, Banffshire, commences with a variant of Lloyd's first verse.]

This is in my paperback reprint at p. 197. I do not know if my paperback reprint edition is paginated the same as the original edition, but if not, you can find in his Index of Songs as "The Water is Wide". In Lloyd's song "The Water is Wide" verse commences "The seas are deep, I cannot wade them", which is the biggest variant I've seen.

Another conflation put together from versions collected by Cecil Sharp is #119, "The Water is Wide", in Fredrick Woods' 'The Oxford Book of English Traditional Verse', 1983 "The Water is Wide" is also the title of another conflation put together from many sources, broadside and traditional, in Stephen Sedley's 'The Seeds of Love', p. 160, 1967.

Allen points out that "The Ripest of Apples" (from U.S.) JFSS I, p. 45 (1900) is a version of "The Water is Wide" (2nd of three verses) is a variant of "The water is wide."

The Scots "Waly Waly" doesn't contain the 'Water is Wide' verse.