Silver Weapon- Margaret Dunagan (KY) 1917 Sharp
[My title, from English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians I, 1917 and 1932. Collected by Cecil J. Sharp including tunes contributed by Olive Dame Campbell; Karpeles; ed.
This Sharp No. 157- A "Silver Dagger" a separate listing from Drowsy Sleeper (Awake Awake).
This is the first of two Sharp "Silver Dagger" ballads in EFSSA. The tune is in ¾ meter and Dorian mode (Dm). The next to last verse should be edited: She opened up her pretty blue eyes, Saying, "My true love, you've come to late," etc. It certainly makes no sense to have her parents there, probably a juxtaposition from the third verse.
R. Matteson 2016]
A. THE SILVER DAGGER- Sung by Margaret Dunagan at St. Helen's Lee Co., Ky. Sept. 5, 1917.
Young men and maids, pray lend attention,
To these few lines, I'm going to write.
Concerning to you to you whose names are mentioned,
Who courted a fair and a beauty bright.
And then her old parents came to know,
They strove to part him and his dear,
They strove to part him and his dear jewel;
He strove and strived and he often strived.
And on her bended knee she bow-ed,
Saying: "Cruel parents, come pity me.
If me and my true love do part,
What will this whole world now be to me."
She turned her back upon the city,
She viewed those fields and meadows around,
She wandered across some fair, broad river,
And there in the shade of a tree sat down.
She pulled out her bright silver weapon,
She pierced it through her tender breast.
Then she began to reel and stagger,
Saying, "Oh true love, I'm going to rest."
Then her true love not a-being far behind her,
He heard her awful seethes and mourns;
She wandered up like a man that was distracted;
I'm lost, I'm ruined, I'm left alone.
She opened up her pretty blue eyes,
Saying, "Cruel parents, you've come to late,
Go try and meet me in all those Zions,
Where all our joys will be complete."
He picked up that bloody weapon,
He pierced it through his tender heart,
Now let this day be an awful warning,
To all true loves that parents part.