BARBARA ALLEN
(BARBARA ALLAN; BONNY BARBARA ALLEN)
Sung by: Fleecy Fox
Recorded in Mountain Home, AR 6/15/63

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‘Twas in the very month of May,
When the green buds, they were swelling,
Sweet William on his deathbed lay
For the sake of Barbara Allen.

He sent his servants into town,
And there unto her dwelling,
Saying, “Oh, so sick, and sent for you,
If your name be Barbara Allen.”

So slowly, slowly she got up,
And slowly she went to him.
She drawed the curtain from Willie’s pale face,
Saying, “Young man, you are dying.”

“Oh yes, oh yes, I’m very sick,
And death is on me dwelling,
But never better will I be
‘Til I get Barbara Allen.”

“Don’t you remember the other night,
A-sitting in the tavern?
A-drinking wine with the ladies all around,
But you slighted Barbara Allen.”

“Oh yes, I remember the other night,
A-sitting in the tavern,
A-drinking wine with the ladies all around,
But I didn’t see Barbara Allen.”

So slowly, slowly she got up,
And slowly she went from him.
She had not gone but a mile or two
‘Til she heard the death bell tolling.

She looked to the east, and she looked to the west.
She seen the chariots a-coming,
With two gray horses a-working in the breast,
And Willie’s corpse behind them.

“Oh mother, oh mother, go dig my grave.
Dig it both long and narrow.
Sweet William died for me today,
And I’ll die for him tomorrow.”

They buried him in the old churchyard;
Barbara Allen was buried beside him
A red rose at Sweet Willie’s feet,
And a green briar at Barbara Allen’s.

They grew and grew in the old churchyard,
‘Til they could grow no higher.
They locked and they tied in a true love’s knot,
The red rose ‘round the briar.

Also found in Child, #84, “Bonny Barbara Allan”; Randolph, Vol. I, #21, “Barbara Allen”; Brown, Vol. II, #27, “Bonny Barbara Allan”; Belden, p. 60, “Barbara Allen.”

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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