The Wife of Usher's Well

The Wife of Usher's Well

Original Text
The English and Scottish Popular Ballads, ed. Francis James Child, 5 vols. (1884-1898; New York: Dover, 1965), II: 238-39 (79A). From Sir Walter Scott's Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border, II (1802): 111, "from the recitation of an old woman residing near Kirkhill, in West Lothian" (238).
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1There lived a wife at Usher’s Well,
2  And a wealthy wife was she;
3She had three stout and stalwart sons,
4  And sent them oer the sea.
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5They hadna been a week from her,
6  A week but barely ane,
7Whan word came to the carline wife
8  That her three sons were gane.
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9They hadna been a week from her,
10  A week but barely three,
11Whan word came to the carlin wife
12  That her sons she ’d never see.
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13“I wish the wind may never cease,
14  Nor fashes in the flood,
15Till my three sons come hame to me,
16  In earthly flesh and blood.”
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17It fell about the Martinmass,
18  When nights are lang and mirk.
19The carlin wife’s three sons came hame,
20  And their hats were o the birk.
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21It neither grew in syke nor ditch,
22  Nor yet in ony sheugh;
23But at the gates o Paradise,
24  That birk grew fair eneugh.
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25“Blow up the fire, my maidens,
26  Bring water from the well;
27For a’ my house shall feast this night,
28  Since my three sons are well.”
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29And she has made to them a bed,
30  She ’s made it large and wide,
31And she ’s taen her mantle her about,
32  Sat down at the bed-side.
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33Up then crew the red, red cock,
34  And up and crew the gray;
35The eldest to the youngest said,
36  ’Tis time we were away.
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37The cock he hadna crawd but once,
38  And clappd his wings at a’,
39When the youngest to the eldest said,
40  Brother, we must awa.
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41“The cock doth craw, the day doth daw,
42  The channerin worm doth chide;
43Gin we be mist out o our place,
44  A sair pain we maun bide.
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45“Fare ye weel, my mother dear!
46  Fareweel to barn and byre!
47And fare ye weel, the bonny lass
48  That kindles my mother’s fire!”

Notes

1] Usher's Well: evidently a fictitious place-name. Back to Line
6] ane: one. Back to Line
7] carline: old. Back to Line
14] fashes: tumults. Back to Line
17] Martinmass: November 11, the feast of St. Martin. Back to Line
18] lang: long. mirk: dark. Back to Line
19] hame: home. Back to Line
20] birk: birch. Back to Line
21] syke: trench. Back to Line
22] sheigh: furrow. Back to Line
41] daw: dawn. Back to Line
42] channerin': grumbling, fretting. Back to Line
44] sair: sore. maun: must. bide: endure. Back to Line
46] byre: cattle shed. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1802
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
2002
Rhyme
abcb
Form
ballad quatrain