THE UNQUIET GRAVE



Cold blows the wind to my true love,

And gently drops the rain.

I've never had but one true love,

And in green-wood he lies slain.



I'll do as much for my true love,

As any young girl may,

I'll sit and mourn all on his grave,

For twelve months and a day.



And when twelve months and a day was passed,

The ghost did rise and speak,

"Why sittest thou all on my grave

And will no let me sleep?"



"Go fetch me water from the desert,

And blood from out the stone,

Go fetch me milk from a fair maid's breast

That young man never has known."



"My breast is cold as clay,

My breath is earthly strong,

And if you kiss my cold clay lips,

You days they won't be long."



"How oft on yonder grave, sweetheart,

Where we were want to walk,

The fairest flower that e'er I saw

Has withered to a stalk."



"When will we meet again, sweetheart,

When will we meet again?"

"When the autumn leaves that fall from the trees

Are green and spring up again."





Child #78 Aside from its exquisite poetry and music,

this ballad is notable for its exhibition of the universal

popular belief that excessive grief on the part of mourners

disturbs the peace of the dead. Most of the verses of "The

Unquiet Grave" can be found in other ballads and folk lyrics,

suggesting the possibility that what we have here is only a

fragment of a longer ballad still undiscovered. But in its few

short verses, it presents a compelling and highly dramatic

vignette of love, death, and grief. From "British Ballads and

Folk Songs from the Joan Baez Songbook"

sung by Joan Baez (5), Frankie Armstrong (Lovely on Water)

Ian Campbell, and Patons



@death @supernatural @love @ballad @ghost

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