Digital Tradition Mirror

What is Jennie Weeping for

What is Jennie Weeping for

     1.
     Oh, what is Jennie weeping for,
       A-weeping for, a-weeping for?
     Oh, what is Jennie weeping for,
       All on this summer's day?
     I'm weeping for my own true love,
       My own true love, my own true love;
     I'm weeping for my own true love,
       All on this summer's day.

     Rise up and choose another love,
       Another love, another love;
     Rise up and choose another love,
       All on this summer's day.

     2.
     Poor Mary is a weeping, a-weeping, a-weeping,
     Poor Mary is a-weeping, on a fine summer's day.
     Pray tell me what you're weeping for? &c.

     Because my father's dead and gone, is dead and gone, is
        dead and gone;
     Because my father's dead and gone, on a fine summer's
     day.

     She is kneeling by her father's grave, her father's
        grave, her father's grave;
     She is kneeling by her father's grave, on a fine
        summer's day.

     Stand up and choose your love, choose your love, choose
        your love;
     Stand up and choose your love, on a bright summer's day.
     ________________________________________________________

     (1) from Berwickshire: A.M. Bell in Antiquary XXX.16;
     Gomme II (1898), 55; SC (1948), 82 (no. 116); (2) Rev. W.
     Gregor, in Gomme, loc cit.  Cf. MacColl, Streets of
     Song, no. 13, learned in Salford in childhood:


Poor Mary sat a-weeping,

A-weeping, a-weeping,

Poor Mary sat a-weeping,

On a bright summer's day.


O, Mary, what you weeping for,

What you weeping for, what you weeping for?

O, Mary, what you weeping for

On a bright summer's day.


I'm weeping for my lover,

For my lover, for my lover.

I'm weeping for my lover

On a bright summer's day.

[St. 2-3 (at least) sung by girls on Leslie Green, 1938.]
Gomme & Sharp III (1912), 18 ("Poor Mary Sits A-Weeping",
from Kent).  See another version in Fraser (1975), 110.

MS

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