WANDERING MARY
(Alexander Balfour 1803)

1
Chill blows the storm upon the breast
Whose guest is life-consuming sorrow;
O take me to some place of rest;
Where I may slumber till tomorrow.
You view my face- it once was fair-
At least so said my charming Harry;
But he is gone- and black despair
Is all that's left to Wandering Mary.
2
Bright shone our blythsome bridal hour,
Love shook his wings with pleasure beaming;
But soon he left our little bower,
While I of bliss was fondly dreaming.
A soldier's coat allured my love,
I wept- I kneeled- he would not tarry-
I prayed him by the powers above
Not to desert his faithful Mary.
3
Alas! how shall I speak the rest,
The grief that's in my bosom burning?
The cold clay clothes his bloody breast!
And can you blame his Mary's mourning?
No house nor home nor friends have I,
Except the babe, my pledge of Harry;
And famine dims his infant eyes,
That used to gladden the mournful Mary.
4
No thief am I, as some allege,
Though sore hath cold and hunger pressed me:
I pluck the berry from the hedge,
When human aid is oft denied me.
But hush my babe! though large the load
Of woes that we are doomed to carry,
Within some grave's bleak abode,
You'll sweetly sleep with wandering Mary.

This song appears in several publications, mostly unattributed, with only a word changed here and there. In some, 'berry' becomes 'haw-berry', and the first word is 'chill' rather than 'bleak'.
The poem was published by Balfour in a collection of his poems, "Contemplation, with other Poems," Edinburgh, 1820; called a 'Scots Poem'. Also in "Northumbrian Minstrel: a Choice Selection of Songs," 1811, printed by W. Davison, Alnick. I don't know the original place of publication.

It appeared in a song sheet (American Memory) printed in Boston, MA, by L. Deming, along with "The Happy Farmer" and "Young Harry."

Songs about the land enclosures carried out near the end of the 18th c. were written both by schooled poets and as ballads by unknown writers. The commons and open lands, long a feature of rural life by common right, were used for grazing, collection of firewood, growing of food and a source of wild fruits and small game. Their closure by land holders and some urban councils caused much hardship to the common folk.

Another of these songs was the subject of thread 5658: In My Old Hat
A longer version, published in "Luckidad's Garland" and later in "Scottish Ballads and Songs," I will post later to that thread.

Ballads and poems condemning the enclosure of common lands are the subject of a paper by R. Ganev, 2008, University of Regina, Canada, and presented at a meeting in the UK, "Ballads and Poems' Condemnation of Enclosure in Eighteenth Century Britain."
iasc2008.glos.ac.uk/conference%20papers/papers/G/Ganev_105901.pdf

I will add a few of these that are not yet in Mudcat.