The Lover's Ghost- Aylward (NL) 1929 Karpeles A
[From Karpeles' Folk Songs from Newfoundland, 1934. Karpeles published three versions of this ballad, all titled The Lover's Ghost, from Newfoundland. Two (A and B) were published in Folk Songs from Newfoundland and one in "15 Songs from Newfoundland" with piano arrangements and no notes nor informant named.
Karpeles first collecting trip to Newfoundland began on Sept. 9, 1929 and ended Oct. 29, 1929. She came back the next summer in 1930.
R. Matteson 2013]
The Lover's Ghost (The Grey Cock)- Matthew Aylward of Stock Cove, Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland, collected by Karpeles, version A, on Sept. 20, 1929.
She said to her mama, she said to her dada,
“There’s something the matter with me,
There’s something the matter and I don’t know what it is,
And I’m weary from lying alone.”
John he came there at the very hour appointed,
He tapped at the window so gay;
This fair maid arose and she hurried on her clothes,
And let her true love John in.
She took him by the hand and on the bed she laid him,
Felt he was colder than clay.
“If I had my wish and my wish it would be so,
This long night would never be morn.”
“Crow up, crow up, my little bird,
And don’t crow before it is day,
And your cage shall be made of the glittering gold,” she said,
“And your doors of the 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 that watches on you
While you are taking your long silent sleep?”
“The sand is my soft bed of down, my love,
The sea is my white Holland sheet,
And long hungry worms will feed off of me
While I’m taking my long silent sleep.”
“And 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.”