Weeping Willow- Pearl Webb (NC) 1921 Brown B
[From Brown Collection of NC Folklore Vol. 3, 1952. The editors notes follow. Only stanza 3 is from informant - chorus and stanzas 1 and 2 are taken from A.
R. Matteson 2017]
267 The Weeping Willow
For the range and affiliations of this song (not to be confounded with Foster's 'Under the Willow,' which was perhaps inspired by it) see BSM 482, and add to the references there given Virginia (FSV 78-9) and the Ozarks (OFS iv 228-30). It is well known in North Carolina, appearing eleven times in our collection. Mrs. Steely found it also in the Ebenezer community in Wake county. The texts differ chiefly by the omission or inclusion or by a rearrangement of stanzas.
B. 'The Weeping Willow Tree.' From Miss Pearl Webb of Pineola, Avery county, some time in 1921-22. Three stanzas and chorus, of which stanzas 1 and 2 and the chorus correspond (with slight variations) to stanzas 1 and 2 of the chorus of A; stanza 3 plus others from A:
1. My heart is broken. I'm in sorrow.
Weeping for the one I love;
For I never more shall see him
Till we meet in heaven above.
Chorus: Then bury me beneath the willow,
Beneath the weeping willow tree.
And when he knows where I am sleeping.
Then, perhaps, he'll weep for me.
2 Tomorrow was our wedding day;
But God knows where is he.
For he's gone to see another
And has left me alone to weep.
3. Tomorrow was our wedding day.
I pray the Lord, where is my love?
He's gone, he's gone, I never more see him
Till we meet in Heaven above.