Bluegrass Messengers

Who is Tapping at My Bedroom Window?- Mrs. Miller (MI) 1895 Gardner A

[From: Ballads and Songs of Michigan by Emelyn- Elizabeth Gardner and Geraldine Jencks Chickering, Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press London: Humphrey Milford, Oxford University Press: 1939. Their notes follow.

The stanza at the end is unusual and blames the cruel parents for the suicides.

R. Matteson 2016]


22 WHO IS TAPPING AT MY BEDROOM WINDOW?

This is a widely distributed song which belongs to a large group of English and Scottish songs concerning the "Night Visit" (Charles Read Baskervill, "English Songs on the Night Visit," PMLA, XXXVI, 565-614). All the Michigan versions contain lines that tell of Willie's killing himself with the dagger and of Mary's following his example, a borrowing from "The Silver Dagger," which, Kittredge notes, occurs also in the Wehman broadside of this song QAFL, XXX, 338). Only A of the Michigan texts begins with the lover trying to arouse his sweetheart from sleep. A and E have a final stanza describing the feelings of the parents the morning after the tragedy For other texts and references see Cox, pp. 348-349, and Mackenzie, pp. 99-100. See also Eddy, No. 26; Greenleaf and Mansfield, pp. 55-56; Scarborough, pp. 139-142, Sharp, I, 358-364; and, for a somewhat similar song, Ord, p. 318.

Version A was sung in 1935 by Mrs. Peter Miller, West Branch, who learned the song in 1895, when she heard it sung in a lumber camp.

[Music]

A. Who is Tapping? - sung in 1935 by Mrs. Peter Miller, West Branch, who learned the song in 1895, when she heard it sung in a lumber camp.

1   "Who is tapping at my bedroom window,
Whisp'ring soft and mournfully?"
" Tis I, 'tis I, you dearest Mary,
Come once more to trouble you.

2   "O Mary dear, go and ask your father
If you my wedded bride might be;
And if he says no, return and tell me,
And I'll no longer trouble thee."

3   "O Willie dear, I dare not ask him,
For he is on his bed to rest,
With a silver dagger lying beside him;
He swore he would pierce my lover's heart."
         
4    "O Mary dear, go and ask your mother
If you my wedded bride might be;
And if she says no, return and tell me,
And I'll no longer trouble thee."

5    "O Willie dear, I dare not ask her,
For I know she needs me here.
You better go and court another
And no longer linger here."

6    Willie drew a silver dagger,
Thrust it into his aching heart,
"Adieu, adieu, my dearest Mary,
You and I forever part."

7    Mary picked up that blood-stained dagger,
Thrust it into her lily-white breast,
"Adieu, adieu, my dearest parents,
Willie and I have gone to rest."

8    When her parents arose in the morning,
They found how cruel that they had been,
For they caused the lives of those dearest children
Now lie mould'ring in the tomb.