An Old Love Song- L. L. McDowell (Blackest Crow)
[As identified by McDowell, this is one of the True Lover's Farewell songs that include: The Blackest Crow/Dearest Dear/The Time Draws Near/I Love You Well/True Lover's Farewell/Lover's Lament/Banishment/The Slighted Girl.
One of the earliest related text is the English broadside called 'The Unkind Parents, or, The Languishing Lamentation of two Loyal Lovers'. It was printed for C. Bates, next the Crown-Tavern in West-Smithfield. The Bodleian dates Bates' operation to "between 1685 and 1714." Here are two of sixteen verses:
Now fare thou well my Dearest Dear, and fare thou well a while,
Altho' I go, I'll come again; if I go ten thousand mile,
Dear Love, if I go ten thousand mile.
Mountains and Rocks on wings shall fly, and roaring Billows burn.
E're I will act Disloyalty; then wait for my return,
Dear Love, then wait for my return.
The song under the title Banishment was first published in the US by Belden in 1906. The Belden text from 1906 was taken from the Civil War diary of E. J. Sims, "sent to me in 1906..." Belden's text is incomplete.
R. Matteson 2014]
" AN OLD LOVE SONG "
(Probably "TRUE LOVER'S FAREWELL" )
The time is drawing near my love ,
When you and I must part;
But little do you think or care
For the grief of my poor heart.
Your eyes are of a sparkling blue,
Like diamonds they do shine,
Your conversation is so sweet,
It charms this heart of mine .
Your cheeks are of a rosy red
Your lips a ruby be;
There is not one part within your heart
That mortal eyes can see.
I wish my breast were made of glass,
So there you night behold
Your name engraved upon my heart
In letters all of gold.
What I have suffered for your sake,
'Tis you I love so dear,
I wish that I could go with you,
Or you could tarry here.
I wish I were ten thousand miles,
Ten thousand miles or more;
Upon some far-off mountain side
Where the wild beasts howl and roar.
When you are in some foreign land,
Send me a line or two,
You need not fear but I'll reply,
When the wind blows forth to you.
There is a lark, a handsome bird,
fii o4g1c and sparrow too.
What, would I care for this whole world
If I were married, to you?
The blackest crow that over flew
May sometime change to white;
If I prove false to your my love,
Bright day will change to night.
Hear yonder lonesome turtle dove,
That flies from vine to vine;
He is mourning for his poor lost love,
As I do mourn for mine.
When you are in some distant land
From now your absent friend,
An opportunity may arrive,
To me a letter send.
Every day seems like a week,
And every hour like ten
It makes me weep when I try to sleep,
To think I've lost a friend.
So fare you well, my own true love;
So fare you well a while
But I'll return to you again,
Though it were ten thousand mile.
This song was remembered by L. L. McDowell, from his early youth [1890], when he had heard it sung by Miss Verna Grissom, later to become Mrs. Manuel Powell, who died a number of years ago. His memory could reconstruct only the sixth and small portions of a few other verses. The first, eighth, ninth, and tenth verses were given to Mrs. McDowell by Miss Cora Womack in 1939. All the song except the tenth and thirteenth verses was obtained in 1940 from Mrs . Eden Hash, (Mrs. Daisy Arnold Hash. ) The thirteenth verse was offered by Mr. U. S. Gilley, who has remembered the first verse and parts of some other verses. The order of the verses is somewhat indefinitely determined, but follows in general the order as given by Mrs. Hash. The various
contributors remembered overlapping parts of the song, in such a manner as to make it almost certain that they wore remembering the same song, and that the general order of the verses was as given above; another significant fact is that they all sang the same tune.