She's Calmly Sleeping Neath the Dark Magnolia Tree (OT2003-3013-005)

She's Calmly Sleeping Neath the Dark Magnolia Tree (OT2003-3013-005)

When the Roses Were in Blossom

Song excerpted from audio recording OT2003-3013, part of VFC2003-0007 Margaret MacArthur Collection.

Margaret MacArthur Collection -- VFC2003-0007. Vermont Folklife Center Archive, Vermont Folklife Center, Middlebury, Vermont, United States of America.

1964-07-16

en

VFC2003-0007 OT2003-3013-005

Vermont Folklife Center

She's Calmly Sleeping Neath the Dark Magnolia Tree

Carrie's Tomb

Ballou's Dollar Monthly Magazine. Elliott, Thomes & Talbot, 1863. Volumes 17-18.(http://books.google.com/books?id=LNYRAAAAYAAJ&lpg=RA1-PA230&pg=RA1-PA230#v=onepage&q&f=false)

See it [Atwood starts over]

See it yonder in the valley
With its branches waving gay
And the stream that dances by it
Making music all the the day
Sing thou on tho canst not wake her
She so oft hath sung to thee
For alas she's calmly sleeping
'Neath the dark magnolia tree

What is earth my gentle Carrie
To a stricken heart like mine
What is earth with all its treasures
When compared to weath like thine
It is nothing nothing nothing
All is nothing now to me
For alas she calmly sleeping
'Neath the dark magnolia tree

Carrie you [Atwood interjects: "That's my sister's name"]

Carrie you my gentle carrie
Dwells among the angels now
One more harp is heard in heaven
One more heart is wrecked below
But I'm coming coming coming
Where there art thou I would be
For alas she's calmly sleeping
'Neath the dark magnolia tree

[Without transition, Atwood begins singing a different song with the same melody, "When the Roses were in Blossom"]

When the roses were in blossom
Whisper low I softly said
As I bound a rosebud chaplet
'Round the maiden's sunny head
Love is all I have to offer
With this crown I'd made for thee
I have woven my devotion
And I crown thee royaly

When the roses were in blossom
I was happy for a while
For I did not dream that shadows
Life's glad sunhine could defile
But a shadow fell about me
Dense and dark on every side
And one evening in the twilight
Mary gentle Mary died

When the roses were in blossom
On the hill a grave was made
For the fairest sweetest blossom
Every born to droop or fade
But I think when roses blossom
That her life again should bloom
In a new perpetual beauty
'Yond the autumn of the tomb

References:

• "The Magnolia Tree," typewritten Atwood family lyrics owned by Margaret MacArthur, archived at the Vermont Folklife Center.
• "When the Roses Were in Blossom," typewritten Atwood family lyrics owned by Margaret MacArthur, archived at the Vermont Folklife Center.
• Alvin Hosmer, "Carrie's Tomb." Ballou's Dollar Monthly Magazine, 1863. vol. 17-18, p. 230. Via Google Books, http://books.google.com/books?id=LNYRAAAAYAAJ&lpg=RA1-PA230&ots=OgGieKqpUg&pg=RA1-PA230#v=onepage&q&f=false

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