Over the Hills at the Poorhouse

DESCRIPTION: "Over the hills at the poorhouse In the twilight so dim and so gray, A woman is quiely lying, Breathing her life away." She "blesses" her children while whining that they never listen; when she is buried, the children find excuses not to attend
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1909 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: mother death burial hardheartedness children rejection
FOUND IN: US(So)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 280-281, "Over the Hills at the Poorhouse" (1 text)
Roud #5496
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "You'll Never Know What Time Will Bring" (theme of old people abandoned in poverty)
NOTES [91 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety notes that there is a poem by Will Carleton with a similar title and theme, but regards them as separate (the Carleton piece, which is 22 stanzas long, begins "Over the hill to the poor-house I'm trudgin' my weary way -- I, a woman of seventy, and only a trifle gray..."), and also (correctly) treats a piece in Brown and Dean (given here as "Over the Hills to the Poor-House") as separate. One rather hopes so; this strikes me as just another "young folks these days are so..." potboiler. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.2
File: Beld280

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography