Apron of Flowers- Mrs. Dinsmore (Col) 1936 Henry
[From Sam Henry Collection: Sam Henry's Songs of the People, edited by Gale Huntington, Lani Herrmann, 1990. A nearly identical version was written by the Ulster poet, Samuel Ferguson, in 1856.
This opens with a stanza from the broadside “Nelly’s Constancy" which also has the third verse. The last two stanzas are from The Constant Lady broadside.
R. Matteson 2017]
The Apron of Flowers- Sam Henry recovered it from Mrs. H. Dinsmore of Coleraine on December 26, 1936.
I loved a young man, I loved his well,
I loved him better than tongue can tell,
I loved him better than he loved me,
For he did not care for my companie.
There is an ale house in this town
Where he goes in, and there sits down;
And he takes a strange girl on his knee
And tells her what he once told me.
But I will tell you the reason why,
Because he had more gold than I
But the gold will melt and the silver fly,
And perhaps he'll be as poor as I.
But there’s a flower grows in this place
And some does call it, the heart’s ease;
And if I could but this flower find
I would ease my heart and my troubled mind.
Into the green meadows there I’ll go
And watch the flowers as they grow
And every flower I will pull,
Until I have my apron full.