Pale Wildwood Flower, Lyric Variant 02

This item is part of the I. G. Greer Folksong Collection which consists of more than 300 individual song titles and their variants as collected by Isaac Garfield Greer (1881-1967) from informants, primarily in Ashe, Wilkes and Watauga counties. The collection includes manuscripts, typescript transcriptions produced by Dr. Greer’s clerical staff, and handwritten musical notations. Songs range from traditional Child Ballads, traditional English and Scottish ballads as well as their American variants, to 19th century popular music to musical compositions of local origin.

Folk songs--United States

Unrequited love--Songs and music

Flowers--Songs and music

The Frail Wildwood Flower, The Wildwood Flower

AC.113 Isaac Garfield (I.G.) Greer Papers and Recordings

W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Appalachian State University

Greer, I. G. (Isaac Garfield), 1881-1967

PDF

English

Text

Raven Black Hair

I’ll twine with these locks of raven black hair
The roses so red and the lilies so fair,
The myrtle so bright with its emerald hue,
And the pale Armeta with eyes of dark blue.

He taught me to love and he promised to love,
To cherish me always all others above,
I woke from my dreaming my idol was clay,
The passion of loving had faded away.

He taught me to love and he called me his flower
That blossomed to cheer him through life’s lonely hour,
But another has won him I’m sorry to tell,
He left me no warning, no words of farewell!

I’ll dance and I’ll sing and my life shall be gay,
I’ll charm every heart in each crowd I array,
Though my heart now is breaking he never shall know
That his name makes me tremble, my pale cheeks to glow.

I’ll dance and I’ll sing and my life shall be gay,
I’ll stop this wild weeping, drive sorrow away,
I’ll live yet to see him regret the dark hour
That he won and neglected this frail wild-wood flower.

Brown, Folk Lyric - 263 Randolph, 798

113_PaleWildwoodFlower_Lyric_02