Drowsy Sleeper- Mary Lou Miller (AR) c1864 Haun
[From Southern Folklore Quarterly - Volumes 15 - Page 91; 1950. Ballad found in Tristram P. Coffin, The problem of ballad-story variation and Eugene Haun's "The drowsy sleeper." Coffin analyzes variation as a 4 point pattern of misunderstanding, adaptation, omission and modification. His notes follow.
R. Matteson 2016]
Mr. Haun, who is a native of Arkansas, learned the song from a hill woman, Mrs. Mary Lou (Brown) Miller, about 1932. He writes, Grandma Miller's songs and stories are among the most vivid memories of my childhood, and she herself is a prominent actor in them. "Moorside Cottage" tells of children coming unexpectedly across a deserted cottage hidden in a copse on the village moor.
She had grown up, a motherless tom-boy in the care of her old grandmother, on a farm near Dardanelle, Arkansas, near Russellville. It was from her grandmother that she had learned her songs by rote, since she could neither read nor write.
The Drowsy Sleeper- sung by Mary Lou Miller of Dardanelle, Arkansas in 1932, learned before 1864. Miller was married at the beginning of the Civil war. Melody is similar to Burl Ives version (Coffin). Mr. Haun, who transcribed the music for this article uses both "sleeper" and "sleepers" here.
Wake up, wake up, you drowsy sleeper
The morning wind blows with the tide.
How can you bear to lie in slumber
When your true love lies at your side?
Her face was pale; her eyes were blue,
And black as ravenswing her hair,
The smell of flowers in her bosom:
Men wept to see a maid so fair.
Oh Mary, Mary tell your father
That you would wed this night with me.
If he says no, come back at morning.
We'll sail away across the sea.
Oh love, my father passed his word,
As he lay on his bed at rest.
And in his hand he held a dagger
Which I hold now within my breast.
Wake up, wake up, you drowsy sleeper.
Wake up, wake up, it's almost day,
How can you bear to lie in slumber
When your true love lies cold as clay?