![]() Engle."Sprig of Thyme" Once I had a sprig of thyme - It grew by night and by day, 'Til a false young man came a-courting to me, And he stole all me thyme away. The Ballad Index Copyright 2022 by Robert B. Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography It's much more explicit than most versions (and I'd call it less effective as a result), but while it is arguably a distinct song, I'm filing it here until and unless I find other versions. The Hattie Mae Tyler Cargill version uses this first verse, and a few other odds and ends, but the middle seems to have been created out of whole cloth. I don't, though I rather wish I could, given the difficulty of distinguishing. Jean Ritchie calls this a version of "The Seeds of Love," and Randolph calls his a "Seeds of Love" variant also, and Roud's classification seems to agree. On the basis of that distinction, I filed Randolph' with "In My Garden Grew Plenty of Thyme" and Ritchie's with "Garners Gay (Rue The Sprig of Thyme)." To show how difficult all this is, Randolph and Ritchie have texts of this called "Keep Your Garden Clean" which are pretty much the same except for the first verse. The mention of multiple herbs, especially rue, seems characteristic. This is one of the more lyric versions of the piece, usually with almost no information about the actual seduction. Whether it is the ancestor of the various thyme songs, or a gathering together of separate pieces, is not clear to me. The Digital Tradition has a version, "Rue and Thyme" (not to be confused with the Ballad Index entry with that title) which seems to have almost all the common elements. So fragmentary versions are almost impossible to classify. For the same reasons, verses float freely between them. Thyme songs are almost impossible to tell apart, because of course the plot (someone seduces the girl) and the burden (let no man steal your thyme) are always identical. ![]() For a catalog of some of the sundry flower symbols, see the notes to "The Broken-Hearted Gardener." NOTES : In flower symbolism, thyme stood for virginity. "The Rue and the Thyme (The Rose and the Thyme)" (theme, symbols, lyrics) Murray, Mu23-y1:104, "The Wheel of Fortune," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C also Mu23-y1:105, "The Wheel of Fortune," James Lindsay (Glasgow), 19C Ĭf. Sara Cleveland, "The Maiden's Lament" (on SCleveland01)ĭebra Cowan, "Keep Your Garden Clean" (on HCargillFamily) 102-103, "Keep Your Garden Clean" (1 text, 1 tune) 56, "Keep Your Garden Clean" (1 text, 1 tune) Ritchie-FolkSongsOfTheSouthernAppalachians, p. Roud/Bishop-NewPenguinBookOfEnglishFolkSongs #53, "The Sprig of Thyme" (1 text, 1 tune)īrowne-FolkSongsOfOldHampshire, pp. 4-5, "Come All You Garners Gay" (1 text, 1 tune) 34-35, "The Sprig of Thyme" (1 text, 1 tune) OShaughnessy/Grainger-TwentyOneLincolnshireFolkSongs 21, "The Sprig of Thyme" (1 text, 1 tune)Ĭologne/Morrison-WiltshireFolkSongs, pp. ![]() 69, "The Sprig of Thyme" (1 text, 1 tune) Reeves-TheEverlastingCircle 116A, "Sprig of Thyme" (1 text) 58-59, "The Sprig of Thyme" (1 text, 1 tune) 80-81, "The Willow Tree, or, Rue and Thyme" (1 text, 1 tune)īroadwood/Maitland-EnglishCountySongs, pp. Stokoe/Reay-SongsAndBalladsOfNorthernEngland, pp. She uses other symbols to describe her sad state: With her thyme gone, her life is "spread all over with rue" a woman is a "branching tree" a man, a wind blowing through the branches and taking what he canĮARLIEST DATE: 1891 (Kidson-TraditionalTunes) Garners Gay (Rue The Sprig of Thyme) Garners Gay (Rue The Sprig of Thyme) DESCRIPTION: Of a girl who has lost her thyme and her love. ![]()
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