House Carpenter- Havens (TN) 1909 Anderson B
[My title. From Geneva Anderson's "A Collection of ballads and songs from East Tennessee." Master's Thesis, University of North Carolina, 1932. Anderson, Collection 52. Copy supplied by Thomas Burton.
The second stanza is unusual and the 5th is an extension of the 4th and only 2 lines. Anderson incorrectly had the 5th as three lines.
R. Matteson 2016]
B. [House Carpenter] (The Daemon Lover) Sung by Mrs. Flora Havens, Binfield, Bounty County- learned in 1909.
1. We have met, we have met, my own true love,
We have met, we have met," said he
"I've just lately come from the salt sea,
And it's all for the love of thee."
2. "I have married a house carpenter,
And a fine looking man is he,
And besides I have a sweet little babe,
How can I bear to go with thee?"
3. "If you forsake your house carpenter
And go along with me,
I will take you where the grass grows green,
On the banks of the salt water sea."
4. "It's what have you to maintain me there, my love,
Or entice for to go?"
"I have three ships all making for dry land
And they shall be all at your command."
5. "And besides there's four and ten jolly young men,
That shall be at your command.
6. She took her babe on her knee,
And kissed it three time three,
Saying, "Stay at home sweet little babe,
And keep your father company,
7. She dressed herself in silk so fine,
That the cost could never been told,
And every town that she rode around
She shone like glittering gold.
8. She hadn't been there more than two weeks
It was not three, I'm sure
Till this fair lady she began to weep
And she wept most bitterly.
9. "Are you weeping for me, my love?
Or are you weeping for fee?
Or are you weeping for your house carpenter,
Whom you never more shall see?"
10. "I'm not weeping for you, my love?
Nor I'm not weeping for fee?
But I'm weeping for my sweet little babe,
Whom I never more shall see."
10. She hadn't been there more than three weeks--
It was not four, I'm sure
Till that ship she sprang a leak
And sank to rise no more.
11. "O, don't you see those big white banks,
As white as any snow?"
They are are the banks of heaven, my love,
Where all Christian people go."
12. "O, don't you see those big black banks,
Banks as black as any crow?"
"They are are the banks of hell, my love,
Where you and I must go."