Little Rosewood Casket, Lyric Variant 04

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.

Last words--Songs and music

Letters--Songs and music

Lovesickness--Songs and music

Ballads, English

Rosewood Casket, A Package of Old Letters, The Rose-Bud Casket, There's a Rosewood Casket, Little Rosebud Casket

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 Little Rosewood casket.

In that little rosewood casket
That is resting on my stand,
Is a package of old letters
Written by my sweetheart’s hand.

Will you go and get them sister?
Will you read them o’er to me?
For oftimes I’ve tried to read them,
But for tears I could not see.

Read those precious lines so slowly,
That I’ll not miss even one,
For the cherished hand that wrote them ,
His last work for me is done.

You have got them now,dear Sister,
Come, sit down upon my bed,
And press gently to your bosom
This poor throbbing aching head.

Tell him that I never blamed him,
Though to me he proved untrue,
Tell him that I’ll ne’er forget him
Till I bid this world adiew.

Tell him that I never blamed him,
Not an unkind word was spoke,,
Tell,oh,tell him , sister,tell him,
That my heart in coldness broke.

When I’m dead and in my coffin,
And my shroud’s around me bound,
And my little bed is ready
In the cold and silent ground.

Place his letters and his locket,
Place together o’er my heart,
But the little ring he gave me,
From my finger never part.

You have finished now,dear sister,
Will you read them o’er again?
While I listen to you read the me,
I will lose all sense of pain.

While I listen to you read them,
I will gently fall asleep,
Fall asleep to wake with Jesus,
Oh dear sister,do not weep.

Brown, Native American Ballads - 273 Randolph, 763

113_LittleRosewoodCasket_Lyric_04