Dying Girl's Message, The

DESCRIPTION: "Raise the window, mother darling, For no air can harm me now." The dying girl remembers the man who falsely courted her. She bids her mother return the ring he gave her with her blessing. She sees Jesus, bids farewell (and dies)
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1906 (Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety)
KEYWORDS: death love betrayal ring
FOUND IN: US(Ro,SE,So) Canada(Ont)
REFERENCES (7 citations):
Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety, pp. 217-218, "The Dying Girl's Message" (2 texts)
Randolph 707, "The Dying Girl's Message" (1 text, 1 tune)
Rosenbaum-FolkVisionsAndVoices, p. 178, "The Dying Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Brown/Schinhan-FrankCBrownCollectionNCFolklore4 318, "The Dying Girl's Message" (2 short texts, 2 tunes)
Owens-TexasFolkSongs-1ed, pp. 176-177, "Dying Girl's Message" (1 text, 1 tune)
Hubbard-BalladsAndSongsFromUtah, #34, "The Dying Message" (1 text)
Vikár/Panagapka-SongsNorthWoodsSungByOJAbbott 35, "The Dying Girl" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #3530
RECORDINGS:
Homer & Walter Callahan, "The Dying Girl's Farewell" (Vocalion 04483/Conqueror 9134, 1936) [I place this here tentatively; I haven't heard the record - PJS]
Mabel Cawthorne, "The Dying Girl" (on FolkVisions2)
Vernon Dalhart, "The Dying Girl's Message" (Columbia 15051-D, 1926; rec. 1925.) (Brunswick 2927, 1925/Supertone S-2010, 1930)
Sid Harkreader, "The Dying Girl's Message" (Vocalion 15075, 1925)
Asa Martin, "The Dying Girl's Message" (Supertone 9179, 1928)
Ernest V. Stoneman, "The Dying Girl's Farewell" (OKeh 40384, 1925) (Victor 21129, 1927)

CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "The Dying Nun" (tune, meter, floating lyrics)
NOTES [66 words]: Belden-BalladsSongsCollectedByMissourFolkloreSociety suggests a connection between this and Tennyson's "The May Queen" -- based seemingly on the meter. This strikes me as an extreme stretch. "The May Queen" has a few incidental lyric similarities, and mentions a lover dying for love -- but the speaker is not the one dying; she is unrepentantly exultant that she is to be the Queen o' the May. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.1
File: R707

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