Oh, bury me not on the lone prairie
Where the coyotes howl and the wind blows free.
In a narrow grave just six by three;
Oh, bury me not on the lone prairie.
It matters not I've oft been told,
Where the body lies when the heart grows cold.
Yet grant, oh grant, this wish to me
Oh, bury me not on the lone prairie.
I've always wished to be laid when I died
In the little churchyard on the green hillside;
By my father's grave there let mine be,
And bury me not on the lone prairie.
Let my death-slumber be where my mother's prayer
And a sister's tear will mingle there;
Where my friends can come and weep o'er me;
O bury me not on the lone prairie.
"O bury me not" and his voice failed there.
But we took no heed of his dying prayer.
In a narrow grave just six by three
We buried him there on the lone prairie.
And the cowboys now as they roam the plain
For they marked the spot where his bones were lain
Fling a handful of roses o'er his grave
With a prayer to Him who his soul will save.
"O bury me not on the lone prairie,
Where the wolves can howl and growl o'er me.
Fling a handful of roses o'er my grave
With a prayer to Him who my soul will save."
abc | midi | pdf
Source: Oberndorfer, Marx & Anne, The New American Song Book (A Century of Progress in American Song), 1941, Chicago, Hal
Notes:
The Oberndorfers write:
"No type of folk music which is native to America is of greater interest than the songs of the cowboys. In the old days when ranch life was of a most primitive type, the cowboys gathered in the big ranch house on the long evenings. There they would entertain themselves and each other by singing of their life and past experiences. Sometimes they sang tunes they knew, changing them to suit the words which they improvised. The favorite of all cowpunchers was the sorrowful lament 'O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie' The Dying Cowboy. This song exists in many different versions, for it was a universal favorite from Wyoming to New Mexico and from Montana to Texas."
Roud: 2 (Search Roud index at VWML) Take Six
Laws:
Child:
Related Songs: O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie (thematic)