Barbara Allen

All in the merry month of May

When the green buds they were swelling,

William Green on his death-bed lay

For the love of Barbara Allen.

He sent his servant to the town

To the place where she was dwelling

Saying "Love, there is a call for you

If your name is Barbara Allen."

She was very slowly getting up

And very slowly going,

The only words she said to him

Were "Young man I think you're dying."

"Don't you remember the other day

When you were in town a-drinking,

You drank a health to the ladies all around

And slighted Barbara Allen?"

"O yes, I remember the other day

When I was in town a-drinking,

I drank a health to the ladies all around,

But my love to Barbara Allen."

He turned his pale face to the wall

And death was in him dwelling;

"Adieu, adieu, to my friends all,

Be kind to Barbara Allen."

When she got in two miles of town

She heard the death bells ringing:

They rang so clear, as if to say

"Hard-hearted Barbara Allen!"

So she looked east and she looked west

And saw the cold corpse coming,

She says "Come round you nice young man

And let me look upon you."

The more she looked the more she grieved

Until she burst out crying

"Perhaps I could have saved that young man's life

Who now is here a-lying."

"O Mother, O Mother, come make my bed

O make it both soft and narrow,

For sweet William died to-day

And I will die to-morrow."

"O Father, O Father, come dig my grave

O dig it deep and narrow,

For sweet William died in love

And I will die in sorrow."

Sweet William was buried in the old church tomb,

Barbara Allen was buried in the yard;

Out of William's heart grew a red rose,

Out of Barbara Allen's grew a brier.

They grew and grew to the old church tower

And they could not grow any higher;

And at the end tied a true lover's knot

And the rose wrapped around the brier.