I Know My Love

DESCRIPTION: "I know my love by his way of walking," his speech, his clothes. She laments, "If my love leaves me, what will I do?" She knows he is courting strange girls in Maradyke. He rejects her because of her lack of money
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1959 (sung by David Hammond on "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland")
KEYWORDS: love courting abandonment poverty
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Kane-SongsAndSayingsOfAnUlsterChildhood, p. 99, "I know my love by his way of walking" (1 fragment, which might be any of the songs which use this verse)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 143, "I Know My Love" (1 text)
DT, KNOWLOVE
Roud #60
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Tavern in the Town" (floating lyrics)
cf. "Queen of Hearts"
NOTES [127 words]: Paul Stamler suggests that this is a version of "Tavern in the Town" (based on the stanza about the dancehouse in Maradyke, which is almost the same as in "Tavern"). I am more reminded of "Queen of Hearts." The first half-stanza, we might note, seems to exist independently of any plot at all, and is fairly popular.
The inevitable result: I list this as a separate song, with a lot of cross-references. Roud lumps it with "Love Has Brought Me to Despair" (Laws P25) -- which for him is a huge family, though Laws lists only a handful of songs in the group. - RBW
Also collected and sung by David Hammond, "I Know My Love" (on David Hammond, "I Am the Wee Falorie Man: Folk Songs of Ireland," Tradition TCD1052 CD (1997) reissue of Tradition LP TLP 1028 (1959)) - BS
Last updated in version 6.5
File: FSWB143

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