All my friends fell out with me
Because I kept my love's company,
But let them say or do what they will,
I love my love with a free good will.

Over the mountains I must go
Because my fortune is so low;
With an aching heart and a troubled mind
For leaving my true love behind.

The Powers above look down and see
The parting of true love and me,
'Tis as hard to part the moon and sky
As it is to part true love and I.

When I have gold she has her part;
And when I have none she has my heart;
And she gained it, too, with a free good will.
And upon my honor I love her still.

The winter's past and the summer's come,
The trees are budding one by one,
And when my true love chooses to stay,
I'll stay with her till the break of day.

abc | midi | pdf

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Source: Alan Lomax, The Penguin Book of American Folk Songs, Penguin, 1964

Notes:
Alan Lomax wrote:

British love song styles flowered in the [American Southern] mountains, giving rise to many new songs, of which this may be one. Here, however, is a mountain love song which has kept a trace of the frankness so characteristic of the Southern English and Scots songs. It was found in North Carolina moutains by Cecil Sharp.

Sharp noted the song from Mrs Ellen Webb at Cane River, North Carolina, on 21 September 1918. (English Folk-Songs from the Southern Appalachians, II, 269).

Roud: 3612 (Search Roud index at VWML)
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