“Jeanette and Jeannot”
Description
"You are going far away from your poor Jeanette. There is no one left to love me now and you too may soon forget." The singer laments her lover's departure to be a soldier. She wishes she had the power to end war
Supplemental text
Jeanette and Jeannot
Partial text(s)
*** A ***
Jeannette and Jeannot
From Hazel Felleman, ed., The Best Loved Poems of the American
People (1936), pp. 435-436. Presumably from some other printed
collection.
You are going far away, far away from poor Jeannette;
There is no one left to love me now, and you, too, may forget,
But my heart will be with you, wherever you may go;
Can you look me in the face and say the same to me, Jeannot?
When you wear the jacket red and the beautiful cockade,
Oh! I fear that you'll forget all the promises you made;
With a gun upon your shoulder and your bayonet by your side,
You'll be taking some proud lady and making her your bride.
(2 additional stanzas)
Notes
My sources do not agree on whether the (co-)author's last name was "Jeffreys," "Jeffreys," or "Jeffries." His poetry was not a great success; I have located only two other poems by him. One is a response to this, "Jeannot's Answer" (for which see Hazel Felleman _The Best Loved Poems of the American People_, which also contains a full text of "Jeannette and Jannot") and "We Have Lived and Loved Together" (also in Felleman). - RBW
Cross references
- cf. "Henry and Mary Ann (Henry the Sailor Boy)" (tune, per broadside Bodleian Firth c.12(284))
References
- Huntington-Whalemen, pp. 245-246, "Genette and Genoe" (1 text, 1 tune)
- ST SWMS245 (Partial)
- Roud #391
- BI, SWMS245