Barbara Allen- Greer (NC) c1925 Greer MS- Lyric Variant 3
[My date. No informant named or date supplied. Contributed by F. M. Greer, a relative of Isaac Garfield Greer. 2 typewritten pages the heading appears as:
DR. F . M . G R E E R
MABEL, N . C .
Part of the Greer Collection in the "So Mote It Ever Be: The Folksong Heritage of North Carolina's Northern Blue Ridge Mountains."
R. Matteson 2015]
BARBARA ALLEN
Way down yonder in Stoney Town;
Those maids they were a-dwelling
There was but one to call my own,
And her name was Barbara Allen.
He sent his servants to the town
Where Barbara was a-dwelling,
Saying, "Arise! Arise! arise and go,
If your name be Barbara Allen.
Slowly, slowly she did rise,
Slowly, slowly she went to see him.
She drew the curtain to one side,
Saying. "Young man you are dying."
"I'm low, I'm low, I'm low indeed,
And death is in my dwelling.
But never better will I be,
Till I get Barbara Allen."
"You're low, you're low, you're low indeed,
And death is in you dwelling.
But never better will you be,
By getting Barbara Allen."
He turned his pale face to the wall,
He turned his back upon her,
Saying, "Adieu, adieu, adieu to friends all around,
And adieu to Barbara Allen.
She hadn't got but a mile out of town
'Till she heard the death bells ringing
She looked to the east and she looked to the west
'Till she saw that corpse a-coming.
"Oh, lay him low, oh, lay him low,
That I may look upon him."
The more she looked the more she wept
'Till she bursted out to crying.
"Oh, mother dear, go make my bed,
Go make it long and narrow,
Young Willie died tor me tonight,
And I will die tor him tomorrow."
Young Willie died on Saturday night,
And Barbara died on Sunday
The parents died for the love of the two,
And they died next on Monday.
Willie was buried in one church yard
And Barbara in another
A rose bush grew on Willie's grave,
And a briar out of the other.
They grew till they reached the old church tower,
They grew and they grew till they grew no higher,
They twined and tied in a true lover's knot
For [her] old true love stood nigh 'er.