| Author | Topic: She's like the Swallow | |
| dmcg | Posted - 01 May 05 - 10:00 am | |
She's like the swallow that flies so high, She's like the river that never runs dry, She's like the sunshine on the lee shore, I love my love and love is no more. 'Twas out in the garden this fair maid did go, A picking the beautiful primrose; The more she plucked the more she pulled Until she got her aperon full. It's out of these roses she made a bed, A stony pillow for her head. She laid her down, no word did say, Until this fair maid's heart did break. She's like the swallow that flies so high, She's like the river that never runs dry, She's like the sunshine on the lee shore, I love my love and love is no more. Source: Singing Together, Spring 1976, BBC Publications Notes: Newfoundland. | ||
| Malcolm Douglas |
Posted - 01 May 05 - 06:55 pm | |
Noted by Maud Karpeles from Mr John Hunt at Dunville, Placentia Bay, 8 July 1930. The note values have been doubled here and the key signature changed from 6/8 to 6/4; the tune is transposed from the original three sharps, perhaps to make it easier for children to sing. The text has, likewise, been tidied up; by Miss Karpeles herself, who printed it as an alternative form for singing. Mr Hunt sang: She's like the swallow that flies so high, She's like the river that never runs dry, She's like the sunshine on the lee shore, I love my love and love is no more. 'Twas out in the garden this fair maid did go, Picking the beautiful prim-e-rose; The more she plucked the more she pulled Until she got her whole aperon full. It's out of those roses she made a bed, A stony pillow for her head. Now this fair maid she lay down, no word did she say Until this fair maid's heart was broke. There are a man on yonder hill, He got a heart as hard as stone. He have two hearts instead of one. How foolish must that girl be For to think I love no other but she. For the world was not meant for one alone, The world was meant for every one. Maud Karpeles, Folk Songs from Newfoundland. London: Faber and Faber, 1971, 243 (notes, 289-290; amended text, 332). The amended arrangement seems to have been broadcast regularly on Canadian radio. Kenneth Peacock got two further versions in 1959; one of the singers remarked that the "air is just like that man sings on the radio". (Peacock, Songs of the Newfoundland Outports, Ottawa: National Museum of Canada, 1965, III, 711-714). Roud 2306. Although there is the usual question of floating verses to cloud the issue, songs quite close have been found also in England and Ireland. It's also worth amplifying on Peacock's reference to the 17th century court musician Robert Johnson's song As I Walked Forth One Summer Day, which appeared in Pills to Purge Melancholy (1719-20, III, 55-56, as The Forsaken Lover's Complaint) among other collections. As I walk'd forth one summers day, To view the meadows green and gay, A pleasant Bower I espied, Standing fast by a River side; And in't a Maiden, I heard cry, Alas! Alas! there's none e'er lov'd as I. Then round the meadow, did she walk, Catching each flower by the stalk: Such flowers as in the meadow grew, The Dead-man's Thumb, an Herb all blew, And as she pull'd them, still cry'd she, Alas! Alas! none ever lov'd like me. The Flowers of the sweetest scents, She bound about with knotty Bents, And as she bound them up in Bands, She wept, sigh'd, and wrung her hands, Alas! Alas! Alas! cry'd she, Alas! none ever lov'd like me. When she had fill'd her Apron full, Of such green things as she could cull, The green leaves serv'd her for a Bed, The Flowers were the Pillows for her head: Then down she laid, ne'er more did speak; Alas! Alas! with Love her heart did break. | ||