Orphan Girl, Lyric Variant 02
 


Citation

“Orphan Girl, Lyric Variant 02,” Appalachian State University Libraries Digital Collections, accessed March 19, 2024, https://omeka.library.appstate.edu/items/show/31779.


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Comments

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Title

Orphan Girl, Lyric Variant 02

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--United States
Avarice--Songs and music
Death--Songs and music
Heaven--Songs and music
Orphans--Songs and music
Hypothermia--Songs and music

Alternative Title

No Home, No Home said a Little Girl, The Orphan Child

Publisher

W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Appalachian State University

Contributor

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

Format

PDF

Language

English

Type

Text

Transcription

The Orphan Girl

No home! No home! cried an orphan girl
At the door of a princely hall,
As she trembling stood on the marble steps
And leaned on the polished wall.
Her clothes were thin, her feet were bare.
Oh give me a home, she feebly cried
A home and a bit of bread
My father, alass! I never knew
And a tear dimmed her eye so bright.
My mother sleeps in a new made grave
All covered in snow and sleet.

The night was dark, the snow fell fast
The rich man shut his door.
His proud lip curled with scorn as he said:
No home, No bread for the poor.
I must freeze, she said as she sank on the steps,
And strove to wrap her feet
In her tattered dress all covered in snow, -
Yes covered in snow and sleet.
The hours rolled on
And the midnight chime
Rolled out like a funeral knell.
The earth seemed wrapped in
A winding sheet,
The drifting snow still fell

The rich man lay on his violet couch,
And dreamed of his silver and gold.
The orphan girl lay on her bed of snow
And Murmured: So cold, so cold.
The morning dawned and the orphan
Girl still lay at the rich man’s door
But her soul had fled to a home above
Where there’s room and bread for the Poor.

Scholarly Classification

Brown, Older Ballads - Mostly British - 148 Randolph, 725 Cox, 153

File name

113_OrphanGirl_Lyric_02

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Comments

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