Barb'ra Allen- Atchley (AR) 1960 Parler P
[From Ozark Collection (No. 17); Collected by Karl T. Gosnell For Mary C. Parler. Reel 272, Item 12 .
R. Matteson 2015]
Barb'ra Allen - Sung by Annie Owens of Ola, Arkansas on November 27, 1958. She was 19 years old.
Listen: http://digitalcollections.uark.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/OzarkFolkSong/id/2741/rec/18
'Twas in the merry month of May,
When the green leaves they were buddin',
Sweet William Gray on his death-bed lay
For the love of Barb'ra Allen.
He sent his servant unto her,
To the place where she was dwellin’,
"My master’s sick and he sent for you
If your name be Barb'ra Allen.”
Slowly, slowly she arose,
And slowly she went to him;
And all she said when she got there
Was, "My love, I think you’re dying."
Do you remember once in town,
A-drinkin' at the tavern,
You drinked to all the girls around,
But you slighted Barbara Allen?"
He turned his pale face to the wall,
She turned her back upon him;
He bid adieu to the ladies ’round,
"Be kind to Barbara Allen."
She had not rode a mile from town
Till she heard the death bells tollin’;
She cried aloud for to set him down
That she might look upon him.
The more she looked, the more she wept
Until she burst out cryin',
"Sweet William died for me today,
I will for him tomorrow."
They buried Sweet William in one churchyard,
Barb'ra Allen in another;
A rose grew on Sweet William’s grave,
On Barb'ra Allen's grew a brier.
They grew and they grew to the steeple top;
There they grew no higher.
There they tied in a true-love's knot,
The rose bush and the brier.