Barb'ra Allen- Bickerstaff (MS) pre-1926 Hudson C 1926; Hudson A (1936)
[From: Ballads and Songs from Mississippi- Arthur Palmer Hudson; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 39, No. 152 (Apr. - Jun., 1926), pp. 93-194. Version A in Folksongs of Mississippi, 1936 (A-P). Also Bronson 100 is attributed to T. A. Bickerstaff with an entirely different text which is really from a different informant but appears as follows in Bronson TTCB:
"Barbara Allen"- Hudson, 1937, No. 15. Sung by T. A. Bickerstaff, in Mississippi, between 1923 and 1930. Beat two is a beat short in the previous printing also.
It was about the Martimas time
When green leaves were a-falling,
Sir John Graham of the West Country
Fell in love with Barb'ra Allen.
This was sung by L. D. Pennington and was wrongly attributed by Bronson who may have got the wrong info somewhere else. It appears as Hudson E (1936) and is close to Child A. The text is from a copy made by T. A. Bickerstaff who communicated it to Hudson.
R. Mattteson 2012, 2015]
4. BONNY BARBARA ALLEN (Child No. 84.)
The third of Four texts. For other texts from the South, see Cox, No. 16; Campbell and Sharp, No. 21 ; Wyman and Brockway, p. I; Reed Smith, pp. 104--116.
Version A- "Barbra Allen." Communicated by Mr. T. A. Bickerstaff, a student in the University of Mississippi; obtained from his father, J. R. Bickerstaff, Tishomingo, Mississippi, "who sang it when he was young and can sing it now."
1. While in the merry month of May
The green buds were a-swelling;
A young man on his death bed lay
For loving Barbra Allen.
2. He sent a servant to the town
Wherein she was a-dwelling:
"My master's sick and sends for you
If your name be Barbra Allen."
3. So slowly, slowly she got up,
And slowly went unto him,
And all she said when she gof there:
"Young man, I think you're dying."
4. "Yes, I am sick and low indeed,
And death is *on me dwelling;
No better, no better will I ever be
If I don't get Barbra Allen."
5. "Sir, do you remember the other night
In a gathering over yonder,
You gave your gifts to all around
And slighted Barbra Allen?
6. "Now you are sick and low indeed,
And death is in your dwelling;
No better, no better will you ever be,
For you'll not get Barbra Allen."
7. He turned his pale face to the wall,
While death was creeping o'er him;
He bid adieu to the nations: "You
Be kind to Barbra Allen."
8. She hadn't got more than a mile from the place
Till she heard the death bells ringing,
A ring and a knock at every door,
Crying, "Woe to Barbra Allen."
9. She looked to the east, she looked to the west,
She saw the corpse a-coming,
Said, "Set the lowly corpse down here
And let me look upon him."
10. The more she looked, the more she sighed,
Till she burst out to crying,
Saying, "Take this lowly corpse away,
For now I am a-dying."
11. Sweet William died on Saturday night,
And Barbra died on Sunday;
Her mother died that they might live,
She died the following Monday.
12. Sweet William was buried in the churchyard,
And Barbra buried by him.
Out of his grave grew a rose vine,
And out of hers a brier.
13. They grew and grew to the steeple top,
Till they could grow no higher;
They lapped and tied in a true-love knot,
The rose around the brier.