The Lover's Ghost- (NL) c.1929 Karpeles
[The Lover's Ghost, a variant of Child 248, was collected at least three times by Karpeles. This text was taken from Fifteen Songs from Newfoundland, with piano score by Ralph Vaughn Williams. Karpeles says in the introduction: "During 1929 and 1930 I paid two visits to Newfoundland each lasting about six weeks, and noted two hundred songs (including variants), from which the thirty songs in these two volumes have been selected." No informant or date are given. The melody is taken from Aylward's version so this appears to be a compilation of texts using Aylward's melody. The first stanza especially is different than any of her other texts.
Karen James did a cover of it and says it's from: Maud Karpeles' Folk Songs from Newfoundland, Book II. Karpeles text version is similar to the version of Matthew Aylward of Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland that she collected in 1929. A cover of this or a similar text version was recorded by Peggy Seeger on Blood and Roses. This variant has also been called "The Ghost Lover," and a similar version was reportedly (online) collected (arranged?) by that title from Newfoundland by Barry Taylor. It appears Taylor's text is a slightly modified version of the Karpeles composite.
According to Phillips Barry (British Ballads From Maine - 1929), "The Lover's Ghost" must stand as the original of "The Grey Cock." It was remembered by Patrick Weston Joyce (1827– November 1914) circa 1830s from his boyhood in Glenosheen, County Limerick, and first published by Joyce in his Old Irish Folk Music and Songs [1909].
R. Matteson 2013]
The Lover's Ghost- (NL) c.1929 Karpeles
Johnny, he promis'd to marry me
But I fear he's with some fair one gone.
There's something bewails him and I don't know what it is
And I'm weary of lying alone.
John, he came there at the hour appointed
He tapp'd at the window so low.
This fair maid arose and she hurried on her clothes
And welcom'd her true love home.
She took him by the hand and she laid him down
She felt he was colder than clay.
She said: My dearest dear, if I only had my wish
This long night would never be day.
Crow up, crow up my little bird
And don't you crow before day
And your cage shall be made of the glittering gold, she says
And your doors of silver so gay.
Where is your soft bed of down, my love?
And where is your white holland sheet?
And where is the fair maid who watches over you
While you are taking your long silent sleep?
Oh, the sand is my soft bed of down, my love,
And the sea is my white holland sheet.
The long, hungry worms will feed off of me
As I lie every night in the deep.
O when will I see you, my love, she cries,
And when will I see you again?
When the little fishes fly and the seas they do run dry
And the hard rocks they melt with the sun.