What an amazing tear-jerker!! This song is included in Peacock's Songs of the Newfoundland Outports.

Grief Is a Knot

1.        Grief is a knot which is hard to untie,
        Love is a thing that money can't buy,
        Sorrow and trouble is the breaking of my heart,
        And I tell you, my comrades, it's hard for to part.

2.        I haven't no father, no mother, no home,
        No brother, no sister, I'm all all alone;
        I had one brother and a sailor was he,
        And today he lies slumbering into the deep sea.

3.        Oh the worst of my trouble is yet for to come,
        The one I love dearly, where can he be gone?
        This long week has passed, love, and he is not come,
        I wonder oh where can my Willie be gone?

4.        He's gone from me now leaving me all alone,
        No one to love me, no friends or no home,
        No brother, no sister for to comfort me,
        I wish I was in heaven with mother today.

5.        When he returned unto me he did say:
        "I think we'll get married before I go 'way;
        Don't you think it won't suit you as you're all alone,
        No one for to love you, no friends or no home?"

6.        Then I consented to be his young bride
        With his head on my bosom as he sat by my side,
        Saying, "Mary, I am sorry for the words that I said,
        I never intended that we should be wed."

7.        "What are you saying or what do you mean,
        Are you going to leave me in sorrow and shame,
        Are you going to leave me as I am alone,
        No one for to love me, no friends or no home?"

8.        "Yes Mary darling, we are going to part,
        For I now love another, she is my sweetheart,
        You know that I loved you in the days that's gone by,
        But I now love another, so Mary, goodbye."

9.        To her bed she was taken and this she did say:
        "Go send for that young man, I'm going to die,
        Go send for that young man and bring him in here,
        Go bring him before me, that's all I do ask."

10.        This young man was sent for and quickly he came,
        He knocked at the door and she answered, "Come in,
        You deceitful, hard-hearted, young Willie," said she,
        "Can't you see where I'm suffering and dying for thee?"

11.        "Are you dying in love, are you dying in pain,
        Can I do anything for you?" the young man exclaimed.
        "No nothing, no nothing, false Willie," said she,
        "It is all for your sake I am dying today."

12.        He bent for to kiss her but turning her head,
        "Don't you dare for to kiss me," the dying girl said,
        "Too often you kissed me, too often," said she,
        It's all to you Willie I'm suffering today."

13.        "Oh Mary, dearest Mary, what do you want of me?"
        "Will you take the baby when I pass away?
        For you know it is yours love and you can't deny,
        Don't you be so deceitful as you was to me."

14.        "Yes, Mary darling, I know it is mine,
        Yes, I'll take the baby when you pass away."
        "Oh I know it will be frowned on when I pass away,
        God answer my prayers and take him with me."

15.        Oh the day of Mary's funeral was a sad mournful sight,
        With her babe on her bosom in long robes of white;
        Where she died that evening and the babe died that night,
        And they both lay a-slumbering in silence so bright.

Verse 11 is from a similar variant sung by Mrs. A. Ghaney of Fermeuse.

Source: Ken Peacock, Songs of the Newfoundland Outports, Vol. 3, Page 673
Sung by Mrs. Freeman Bennett, Great Northern Peninsula, St. Paul's, Newfoundland - August, 1958

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-Joe-




Theres's also a version posted at the wonderful GEST Website, a collection of Newfoundland songs.