Why Don't You Love the Old Love?

DESCRIPTION: The singer is a stranger to this country. When an old love's back is turned she can love whom she pleases. "To me she gives nothing, Who loved her so dear" "I'll dress you my darling And take you away. Into New York we'll be sailing"
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1974 (Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan)
KEYWORDS: love courting rejection floatingverses emigration
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Munnelly/Deasy-TheMountCallanGarland-Tom-Lenihan 33, "Why Don't You Love the Old Love?" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #5216
RECORDINGS:
Tom Lenihan, "Why Don't You Love the Old Love?" (on IRTLenihan01)
NOTES [111 words]: There are floating lines rather than floating verses. Lines like "You can love whom you please", "When first to this country A stranger I came", and "Green grow the rushes And the tops of them small" are combined with lines that don't float. Some verses don't seem to float at all.
On the other hand, Lenihan's second verse has, with a few changes, floated from "Stone and Lime" (especially Greig/Duncan6 1216A,J,K): "When first to this countary A stranger I came ... my love was confined Between lime and stone wall." It is usually his heart that's confined, so Lenihan's verse shows the influence of such daughter-confined ballads as "The Iron Door" [Laws M15].- BS
Last updated in version 2.7
File: RcWDYLTO

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