Barbara Allen

In Scarlet town, where I was born

There was a fair maid dwellin’

Made every youth cry, "Well-a-way!"

Her name was Barbara Allen

It was all in the month of June

When all things they were bloomin'

Sweet William on his death-bed lay

For the love of Barbara Allen

He sent his servant to the town

Where Barbra was a-dwellin’

"My master is sick and sent for you

If your name be Barbara Allen”

So slowly, slowly she got up

And slowly she came nigh him

And all she said when she got there

"Young man, I think you’re dyin'"

"Oh, yes I'm sick, and very sick

And death is on me dwellin'

No better no better I never will be

If I can't have Barbara Allen"

"Oh yes you're sick, and very sick

And death is on you dwellin'

No better no better you never will be

For you can't have Barbara Allen"

As she was on her highway home

The birds they kept a-singin'

They sang so clear they seemed to say

"Hard-hearted Barara Allen"

She looked to the East, and she looked to the West

She spied his corpse a-comin'

"Lay down, lay down, that corpse of clay

That I may look upon him"

The more she looked, the more she moaned

'Til she fell to the ground a-cryin'

Sayin', "Take me up and carry me home

For I am now a-dyin'"

"Oh father, oh father, go dig my grave

Go dig it long and narrow

Sweet William died for me today

I'll die for him tomorrow"

She was buried in the old church-yard

And he was buried a-nigh her

On William's grave there grew a red rose

On Barbara's grew a green briar

They grew to the top of the old church-wall

'Til they could not grow any higher

They leapt and they tied in a true-lover's knot

And the rose grew around the briar