Subject: Lyr/Tune Add: Strawberry Lane
From:
T in Oklahoma (Okiemockbird)
Date: 14 Jan 00 - 08:06 PM
The following song was published by G. L. Kittredge in "Ballads and Songs", The Journal of American Folk-Lore 30(117), July-September 1917, pages 283-369, at page 284-285, with the following note:
"Communicated in 1914 by Mr. E. Russell Davis, as remembered by his mother and himself from the singing of his grandfather, Mr. William Henry Banks (born 1834), a vessel-owner of Maine."
Unfortunately Kittredge didn't report all the stanzas that were collected, or the informants remembered the existence of some verses between the third and fourth reported here, but forgot the precise words.
As I was a-walking up Strawberry Lane,
Every rose grows merry and fine,
I chanced for to meet a pretty fair maid,
who said she would be a true-lover of mine.
"You'll have for to make me a cambric shirt,
Every rose grows merry and fine,
and every stitch must be finicle work,
before you can be a true-lover of mine.
"You'll have for to wash it in a deep well,
Every rose grows merry and fine,
where water never was nor rain ever fell,
before you can be a true lover of mine."
"Now since you have been so hard with me,
Every rose grows merry and fine,
perhaps I can be as hard with thee,
before you can be a true-lover of mine.
"You'll have for to buy me an acre of ground,
Every rose grows merry and fine,
[...informants apparently forgot this line...]
before you can be a true-lover of mine.
"You'll have for to plow it with a deer's horn,
Every rose grows merry and fine,
and plant it all over with one grain of corn,
before you can be a true-lover of mine.
"You'll have for to thrash it in an eggshell
Every rose grows merry and fine,
and bring it to market in a thimble,
before you can be a true-lover of mine."
X: 1
T: Strawberry Lane
C: Collected in 1914 from Mr. E. Russell Davis. Published in JAFL 30(117), July-Sept. 1917, p.284.
M: 3/4
K: C
L: 1/4
A | A d c | A G F | A d c | (A2G) | F A c | d2 e | d c A | A z F |
A2 A/ A/ | (AG) F | G F D | F2 G | A2 A/ A/ | c A F | G F E | D2 ||
|
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