Little Sparrow- Myra Barnett (NC) c.1909 Brown B
[From Brown Collection of NC Folklore, Volume III, 1952. My footnotes- Brown notes follow.
R. Matteson 2017]
254. Little Sparrow
This lyric of the lovelorn is a favorite in the Southern mountains. See BSM 477 and add to the references there given Virginia (FSV 80-1). Florida (SFLQ viii 172-3), Missouri (OFS I 315-17), and Indiana (SFLQ in 205, BSI 328). It is often called 'Come all you fair and tender ladies,' from its opening line. It is distinguished from other songs of a like spirit, such as 'The Inconstant Lover,' by the image of the bird and, generally, by the likening of love to a fair dawn that turns into bad weather. One of the following texts is marked by a trace — rare in American tradition — of the old English 'Seeds of Love' songs[1].
B. 'Little Sparrow.' Reported by Mrs. Sutton from the singing of Myra Barnett, and therefore probably to be dated in the first decade of the present century, it is substantially like A, yet differs in details interestingly.
1 Come all ye fair and tender ladies[2],
Be careful how you court young men.
They're like bright stars in a summer morning,
They first are here and then they're gone.
2 They'll tell to yon some tender story,
Declare to you that they are true.
Then straightaway go and court some other.
And that's the love they have for you.
3 Oh. love is sweet and love is charming[3]
And love is pleasant when it's new.
But love grows cold as love grows older,
And fades away like the mountain dew.
4 I wish that I'd a never seen him,
Or that I'd died when I was young.
To think a fair and handsome lady
Was stricken by his lying tongue!
5 I wish 1 was a little sparrow,
Had wings, and oh! could fly so high.
I'd fly away to my false lover
And when he'd ask, I would deny.
6 Alas, I am no little sparrow.
No wings, and cannot fly so high.
I'll sit me down in grief and sorrow
And try to pass my trouble by.
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1. From Wheel of Fortune stanza 9 see version C
2. Stanzas 1, 2, and 5 from "Lady's Address" English broadside
3. An archaic stanza modified from "Love is Teasing"