Blind Girl, Lyric Variant 03
 


Citation

“Blind Girl, Lyric Variant 03,” Appalachian State University Libraries Digital Collections, accessed November 21, 2024, https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/items/show/31394.


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Title

Blind Girl, Lyric Variant 03

Description

This item is part of the I. G. Greer Folksong Collection which consists of more than 300 individual song titles and their variants as collected by Isaac Garfield Greer (1881-1967) from informants, primarily in Ashe, Wilkes and Watauga counties. The collection includes manuscripts, typescript transcriptions produced by Dr. Greer’s clerical staff, and handwritten musical notations. Songs range from traditional Child Ballads, traditional English and Scottish ballads as well as their American variants, to 19th century popular music to musical compositions of local origin.

Subject

Ballads, English
Blind children--Songs and music
Remarriage--Songs and music
Death--Songs and music

Alternative Title

Blind Girl's Prayer

Publisher

W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Appalachian State University

Contributor

Greer, I. G. (Isaac Garfield), 1881-1967

Format

PDF

Language

English

Type

Text

Transcription


They tell me, Father, that tonight
You wed another bride
That you will clasp her in your arms
Where my dear Mother died.

That she will lean her graceful head
Upon your manly breast,
Where she who now lies low in death
In life’s last hours did rest.

They say her name is Mary, too-
The name my Mother bore.
But Father, is she kind and true
Like the one you loved before?

And is her step so soft and light,
Her voice so meek and mild?
And Father, do you think she will love
Your blind and helpless child?

Please, Father, do not bid me come
To meet your lovely bride,
For I could not meet her in the room
Where my dear Mother died.

Her picture’s hanging on the wall.
Her books are lying near,
And there’s the harp her fingers touched
And her vacant chair.

The chair where by her side I knelt
To say my evening prayer.
Please, Father, do not bid me come,
For I could not meet her there.

But when I’ve cried myself to sleep,
As I now often do,
Then softly to my chamber creep,
My new Mama and you.

Then bid her gently press a kiss
upon my throbbing brow,
Just as my own dear Mother would.
Why, Papa, you’re weeping now.

Now let me kneel down by your side
And to my Savior pray
That God’s right hand may guide you back
Through life’s long weary way.

The prayer was murmured, then again
"I’m growing tired", she said.
He gently raised her in his arms
And laid her on the bed.

Then as he turned to leave the room,
One joyful cry was given.
He turned and caught the sweetest smile,
For his blind child was in Heaven.

They laid her by her Mother’s side
And raised a marble fair,
And on it engraved these simple words:
There’ll be no blind ones there.

Scholarly Classification

Brown, Older Ballads - 149 Randolph, 724

File name

113_BlindGirl_Lyric_03_ocr

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