Barbara Allen [Traditional]
On this Lyrics as Poetry Friday, we travel back to the 17th Century to consider the song “Barbara Allen”.
Barbara Allen" is a traditional folk song that is popular throughout the English-speaking world and beyond. It tells of how the eponymous character denies a dying man's love, then dies of grief soon after his untimely death.
The song began as a ballad in the seventeenth century before quickly spreading (both orally and in print) throughout Britain and Ireland and later North America.
Ethnomusicologists Steve Roud and Julia Bishop described it as "far and away the most widely collected song in the English language—equally popular in England, Scotland and Ireland, and with hundreds of versions collected over the years in North America."
Click on the following link to see a very young Joan Baez sing her rendition of “Barbara Allen”
Barbara Allen
Twas in the merry month of May
When green buds all were swelling
Sweet William on his death bed lay
For love of Barbara Allen
He sent his servant to the town
To the place where she was dwelling
Saying you must come, to my master dear
If your name be Barbara Allen
So slowly, slowly she got up
And slowly she drew nigh him
And the only words to him did say
Young man I think you're dying
He turned his face unto the wall
And death was in him welling
Good-bye, good-bye, to my friends all
Be good to Barbara Allen
When he was dead and laid in grave
She heard the death bells knelling
And every stroke to her did say
Hard hearted Barbara Allen
Oh mother, oh mother go dig my grave
Make it both long and narrow
Sweet William died of love for me
And I will die of sorrow
And father, oh father, go dig my grave
Make it both long and narrow
Sweet William died on yesterday
And I will die tomorrow
Barbara Allen was buried in the old churchyard
Sweet William was buried beside her
Out of sweet William's heart, there grew a rose
Out of Barbara Allen's a briar
They grew and grew in the old churchyard
Till they could grow no higher
At the end they formed, a true lover's knot
And the rose grew round the briar
--Traditional