“The Poor Stranger (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone)”

Description

The singer wanders out alone and meets a girl, also alone. Each asks why the other is there. Both have had trouble with lovers at home and so ran away. They settle down to a happy life together

Supplemental text

Poor Stranger, The (Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone)
  Partial text(s)

          *** A ***

Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone

From Vance Randolph, Ozark Folksongs, Volume I, #59, pp. 270-271.
Collected from Miss Grace Etchison of Hatton, Arkansas, December 30, 1929.

Is I went out a-welkin' one mornin' in Spring
To hear th' birds whistle, pretty nightingales sing,
I spied a fair damsel a makin' her moan,
Sing I am a stranger an' far from my home.

I stepped up beside her an' made a longee, (sic.)
An' ask her forgiveness for bein' so free,
I had to take pity on hearin' you moan,
For I too am a stranger, an' far from my home.

(5 additional stanzas)

Cross references

• cf. "The Lost Girl"
• cf. "The Rebel Soldier" (meter, floating lyrics)

References

1. Belden, p. 487, "Poor Stranger a Thousand Miles from Home" (1 text, a short item which seems to combine "The Poor Stranger," "Farewell, Sweet Mary," and perhaps some floating items)
2. Randolph 59, "Two Strangers in the Mountains Alone" (1 text, 1 tune)
3. JHCox 107, "A Poor Stranger Far from Home" (1 text)
4. BrownII 138, "The Happy Stranger" (1 fragment)
5. SharpAp 157, "The Rebel Soldier, or The Poor Stranger" (7 texts, 7 tunes, but only "A" and probably "F" are this song; the rest are "The Rebel Soldier")
6. Manny/Wilson 95, "A Stranger Far From Home" (1 text, 1 tune)
7. ST R059 (Partial)
8. Roud #272
9. BI, R059