Farmer's Boy

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.

Folk songs

Farmers--Songs and music

Children--Songs and music

Inheritance and succession--Songs and music

AC.113 Isaac Garfield (I.G.) Greer Papers and Recordings

W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Appalachian State University

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

PDF

English

Text

The Farmer's Boy

The sun had sunk behind the hills
Across yon dreary moor.
When wet and cold there came a boy
Up to the farmer's door.
“Can you tell me”, said he, “if any there be
Who would like to give employ
For to plow and sow, to reap and mow,
And to be a farmer's boy?

“My father'dead--my mother's left
With four poor children small,
And what is worse for mother still
I'm the eldest of them all.
But though small, I'll work as hard as I can
If I can get employ
For to plow and sow, to reap and mow,
And to be a farmer's boy!”

The farmer's wife cried, “Try the lad,
Let him no further seek!”
“O, do, papa!” the daughter said,
While a tear stood on her cheek:
“For those who will work 'tis hard to want,
Or to wander for employ
For to plow and sow, to reap and mow,
And to be a farmer's boy!”

The farmer's boy he grew a man--
The good old farmer died,
He left the lad with all he had,
And his daughter for a bride!
The boy that was, now a farmer is
And he thinks and smiles with joy,
At the close of day when he passed that way
To be a farmer's boy!

Brown, Play-Party and Dance Songs - 88 Randolph, 118

113_FarmersBoy