The Ghostly Lover- Mildred White and Laura May White (Sandy Cove, NL) 1929 Greenleaf
[The Ghostly Lover is found on p. 76 in Ballads and Sea-Songs of Newfoundland by Elizabeth Bristol Greenleaf and Grace Yarrow Mansfield. Kittredge's notes follow the ballad text.
Karpeles found at least three versions in Newfoundland that she titled, The Lover's Ghost" and one of them was also from Sandy Cove.
R. Matteson 2013]
The Ghostly Lover- Mildred White and Laura May White (Sandy Cove, NL) 1929 Greenleaf
[music]
1. Over hills and lofty mountains,
Oh dear! oh dear, I'm forced to go.
If I be guided without one stumble,
Into the arms of you, my love.
2 He went till he came to his love's room window,
And kneeling down upon a stone,
Through the pane of glass he whispered slowly,
"Say, lovely Betsy, are are you at home?"
3 "O, who is this under my room window,
Disturbing me from my long night's rest?"
" 'Tis your own true love, he is come to see you.
I pray get up, love, let me in."
4 She rose her head from her soft down pillow,
Her lily breast like a snowy light,
When they kissed, shook hands, and both embraced,
Till this long night was to an end.
They kissed, shook hands, and in sorrow parted
Just as the cock began to crow.
6 "Had I the ink of the darkest color,
And had I a paper of the lily white,
And had I a pen of the pennsylvania,
My true love's praises I would write."
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Although the words do not seem to bear out the title, the White girls insist this is a song about a lover who was drowned, but rose from his watery grave to see his sweetheart once again. Miss White remembered from her father's singing, a few lines evidently of another song,
"This very night I will lie with you,
Although you're so many miles away."
"Is there any room at your feet for me?[1]"
"I'm come from my watery grave."
In Folk-Songs of the South, No. 147, Cox prints a version of the same theme ("Mary's Dream"), but the metre and treatment are so different that I do not think the songs are related. This is one of the folk·songs in which words and music seem wonderfully matched. The tune expresses grief, resignation, and passion, just as the lines do, and from my experience with Newfoundlanders, I should say the song represents quite accurately the attitude of the women toward the loss of their men.
The present song, though it has been applied to a tragic theme, is really a version of a quite different piece, as may be seen from the full text in Ord, p. 89.
1 A line of "Sweet William's Ghost" (see No. 9, stanza 7).