The Butcher Boy Dave Van Ronk

She went upstairs to make her bed
Not a word to her mother said
Her mother she went upstairs too
Saying “daughter, daughter what’s troubling you?”
“Oh mother, mother, I may not tell
It’s the butcher boy I love so well.”
He’s courted me my life away
And now at home he will not stay
There is a tavern in yonder town
Where he goes and sits him down
He sits those pretty girls on his knee
And he tells them tales he won’t tell me
Her father he come home from work
He ask for his daughter, she seems so hurt
He went upstairs to give him hope
And he found her hanging by a rope
He took his knife and cut her down
And on her bosom these words he found
Oh what a foolish girl have I
For such a cruel young man to die
“Go dig my grave both wide and deep
Marble slab at my head and feet
And on my grave carve a snow white dove
To let the world know I died for love.”
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