Wake Up- Alice Wharton (OK) pre1964 Moores
[From: BALLADS AND FOLK SONGS OF THE SOUTHWEST by the Moores; 1964. Their notes follow. their brief notes follow.
R. Matteson 2016]
88. The Drowsy Sleepers
The Drowsy Sleepers is still widespread in Great Britain and America.
Wake up, You Drowsy Sleepers- sung by Mrs. Alice Wharton of Norman.
"Wake up, wake up, you drowsy sleepers;
Wake up, wake up, and pity me."
"It's who comes here that's at my window,
Oh, who comes here to trouble me?"
"Oh, who is this that's at my window?
Oh, who is this that sings so loud?"
"It is the man who loves you dearly;
No pity on him has been shown."
"If you sing, you will wake my mother;
Songs of love she dislikes to hear.
And if you sing, go court some other,
Or whisper softly to my ear."
"No other one, I can ever court;
No other course can I ever go.
It's time you were weaned from your mother
And with your own true lover go."
"My father sleeps in his bedchamber,
A-taking of his silent rest;
And in his hands he holds a weapon
To kill the man that I love best.
"Oh, Father, Father, tell your reason.
Oh, Mother, Mother, pity me.
If I can't have my own heart's choice,
What will this whole world be to me?"
Away down yonder in some lone valley,
Where I shall go and spend my days,
My eat shall be of grief and sorrow;
My drink shall be a vial of tears."
"Yes, I'll forsake my father's dwelling;
I'll forsake my mother, too.
Come back, come back, my own true lover,
And I will go away with you."