An Awful Warning- Clayton (NC) 1916 Brown A1
[From: The Brown Collection Volume 2, 1952. Their notes follow. This is a version of the composed ballad, a traditional version was published in 1849 in NY in Spirit of the Times as sung by "Sal Jenkins." The original has not been found but it would have been printed around 1810. The B version in the Brown Collection is dated 1838.
R. Matteson 2016]
72. The Silver Dagger
Something of a favorite in the South and West, this ballad seems not to be found in New England tradition. See BSM 123, and add to the references there given Virginia (FSV 57-9), Florida (SFLQ VIII 185-6), Missouri (OFS 11 52-8), Ohio (BSO 92-4, in combination with 'The Drowsy Sleeper'), Indiana (BSI 21 1-4), Illinois (JAFL lx 218-9), and Michigan (BSSM 89-90). Mrs. Steely found it in the Ebenezer community in Wake county. Since the texts, though less or more complete, all tell the same simple story, only one, the fullest, is given complete here.
A. 'An Awful Warning.' Contributed in 1916 by J. W. Clayton, student at Trinity College.
1. Young folks, young folks, give me your attention
Of these few lines I'm about to write.
For they are true as ever mentioned.
Concerning a fair and a youthful bride.
2 A young man courted a handsome lady,
He loved her as he loved his life,
And while alone he had vowed to make her
His own and adoring little wife.
3 Now when his parents came to know this
They sought to part them night and day,
Saying, 'Son, oh, son, why are you so foolish?
Why, she's so poor,' they would oft times say.
4 Down on his knees he prayed before them:
'Oh, cruel parents, pity me.
Don't take from me my only jewel,
For she is more than life to me.'
5 Now when this lady came to know this
She volunteered what she would do.
She sauntered around and left the city,
Its pleasant groves no more to you.[1]
6 She wandered down by the flowing river
And there prepared herself for death.
She took from her bosom a silver dagger
And she pierced it through her snow-white breast.
Her lover being in yonder thicket
And hearing all her love-sick groans,
He rushed to where his love lay dying.
Said she, 'True love, I'm going home.'
He then picked up the dying body
And rolled it over in his arms,
Saying, 'Is there gold or friends can save you.
Or must you die with all your charms ?'
Her coal-black eyes like the stars she opened.
Saying, 'Oh, true love, you've come too late.
Prepare to meet me on Mount Zion,
Where all our joys will be complete.'
He then picked up the blood-stained dagger
And pierced it through his tender heart.
Saying, 'Let this be an awful warning
To those who seek true love to part.'
1. Miswritten, or misheard, for "view."