Young Ladies- Mrs. A.R. Fike (WV) 1916 Cox A
[Date supplied from another version supplied by Shaffer. From John Harrington Cox's 'Folk-Songs of the South,' Pelican Publishing Company 1998 reprint of 1925 edition - and the text in Alan Lomax's 'Folk Songs of North America'.
This version has the "Love is Teasing" variant stanza at the end.
R. Matteson 2017]
YOUNG LADIES- Communicated to Cox by Mr J.H. Shaffer of Newburg, Preston County about Jan. 6, 1916 who obtained it from Mrs A.R. Fike, Terra Alta; Cox A.
Come all ye fair and handsome ladies
Take warning how you court young men
For they're like a bright star on a summer's morning
They first appear and then they're gone.
They'll tell to you some flattering story
And swear to God that they love you well
And away they'll go and court some other
And leave you here in grief to dwell.
I wish to God I never had seen him
Or in his cradle he had died
For to think so fair and handsome lady
Was one in love and be denied.
I wish I was in some tall mountain
Where the ivy rock is black as ink
I would write a letter to my false lover
Whose cheeks are like the morning pink
I wish I was some little sparrow
And one of them that could fly so high
I would fly away to my true love's dwelling
And when he would speak I would be close by
O I would flutter in his bosom
With my little [ex]tended wings
I would ask him, I would ask him
Whose tender heart he had tried to stain.
My troubles now are just beginning
My troubles like some mountain tall
O I'll sit down in grief and sorrow
And there I'll talk my troubles o'er.
Love is handsome, love is charming
Love is beauty while it's new
Love grows older, love grows colder
Fades away like morning dew.