WILL YOU LOVE ME WHEN I'M OLD?
Sung by: Mrs. Maggie Dawn
Recorded in Pleasant Grove, AR, 7/15/52

 Click here to listen to the original recording
(Mrs. Dawn: "This song is 'Will You Love Me When I'm Old,' and has been a favorite with my husband and I for fifty or more years.")

I would ask of you a question,
A question soft and low,
That gives me many a heartache
As the moments come and go.
Your love I know is truthful,
But the truest love grows cold;
And it's only this, my darling:
Will you love me when I'm old?

Chorus: Life's morn will soon be waning,
And the evening bells be tolled,
But my heart will know no sorrow
If you love me when I'm old.

Down the stream of time together
We have drifted side by side,
Hoping some bright day to anchor
Safe beyond the surging tide.
Today the sky is cloudless,
But tonight may clouds unfold,
And the storms may gather 'round us--
Will you love me when I'm old?

(Chorus)

When my hair shall sham the snowdrift,
And my eyes do dimmer grow,
I would lean upon some loved one
In the valley as I go.
I would claim of you a promise
Worth to me a world of gold,
And my heart will know no sorrow
If you love me when I'm old.

Also found in Randolph, Vol. IV, #824; Brown, Vol. III, #273.

All Songs Recorded by John Quincy Wolf, Jr., unless otherwise noted

The John Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection
Lyon College, Batesville, Arkansas
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