| Lyrics: | 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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