Farewell Dear Rosanna

Farewell, dear Rosannie, and I shall no more
Behold your fair face as I have done before,
I'll stand at your window both early and late,
So hard is my fortune and troubles so great.

When cruel old parents came this for to hear
They stepped up to the window and bid him away
Then away went Alamander, away in great speed
Rosannie is married to a squire indeed.

If Rosannie is married, the girl I adore
I'll turn to the seas and I'll come here no more,
So early next morning the ship it set sail
So early next morning she drew a fresh gale.

Through cold, stormy weather her course she did steer,
For the sake of Rosannie, Alamander's own dear
And when they were a-sailing their ship struck a rock
And all of the sailors in the sea they were lost.

With the exception of one sailor in a hogsted (hogshead?) was tossed
He sailed on the ocean till at length he did cross
Away to old England then high to declare
Alamander is drowned, Rosannie's own dear.

And when Rosannie came this for to hear
She wrung her lily-white hands and tore down her hair;
Saying,"Curse cruel parents wherever they be
They'll slight their children in many degree.

She pulled out her silver dagger and oierced her body through
Her blood it lay sprinkled like evening dew,
She pulled out her apron in the place where she stood
And sprinkled it over with innocent blood.

Alamander's body buried in the salt, roaring main
Rosannie's blood sprinkled like drops of hard rain,
Saying, " Cursed be cruel parents for their cruel-tie
For the sake of Alamander Rosannie she dies.

From English Folk Songs From the Southern Appalachians, Sharp
Collected from Austin Ritchie, KY, 1917
DT #586
Laws M30
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