“Searching for Lambs”
Description
A young man meets a girl and asks her where she is going. She is going to feed her father's "tender lambs." He begs her to stay with him. They court for long. (He hopes that) they marry.
Supplemental text
Searching for Lambs
Partial text(s)
*** A ***
One Morning Clear
From the Sam Henry collection, H548, printed June 2, 1934. No
source given. As printed on p. 341 of Henry/Huntington/Herrmann.
One morning clear, to meet my dear before the sun would rise,
Her cherry cheeks and ruby lips, they put me in surprise;
'Where are you going, my dear,' said I, 'your journey to pursue
Before bright Phoebus' golden beams dry up the morning dew?'
'I'm going to feed my father's flocks, his ewes and tender lambs
Down beneath yon forest where they're sporting with their dams.'
'Then, since together we are met, my love, let us agree,
I could wish that all true lovers were as happy met as we.'
My love's genteel and handsome, she's neat in every limb,
I courted her for four years and thought the time not long,
And thrice four years I'd a-courted her, if life that long would stay,
Not thrice four years but four hundred, and would count it all one day.
I love my love, there is no doubt, it's all for love again,
And if she says she loves me not, I laugh at her disdain;
If she is constant, I'll be true, and forever we'll agree,
But if ever I find she's changed her mind, I'll change mine as well as she.
The pleasantest month in all the year is the merry month of June,
When all the world is pleasant and all the flowers in bloom,
When all together sport and play, and birds sing every tune,
Where young women carry the key of love, young men may know their doom.
Notes
For the rather vexed relationship of this song with "Branded Lambs" [Laws O9], see the notes to that song. - RBW
Cross references
- cf. "Branded Lambs" [Laws O9] (theme)
References
- Sharp-100E 48, "Searching for Lambs" (1 text, 1 tune)
- SHenry H548, p. 341, "One Morning Clear" (1 text, 1 tune)
- DT 474, SRCHLAMB
- ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 43, "Searching for Lambs" (1 text, 1 tune)
- ST LO09A (Partial)
- Roud #576
- BI, LO09A