LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,109)
  • Text Authors (19,485)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

from Volkslieder (Folksongs)

On top of Old Smokey
Language: English 
On top of Old Smokey
All covered with snow
I lost my true lover
By a-sparkin' too slow.

Sparkin' is pleasure
And partin' is grief,
And a false-hearted lover
Is wuss than a thief.

A thief he will rob you,
Will take all you have;
But a false-hearted lover
Will send you to your grave.

The grave will decay you,
Will turn you to dust
There's not a girl in a hundred
A poor boy can trust.

"Go put up yer horses
And feed 'em some hay;
Come sit here beside me
As long as you stay."

"My horses ain't hungry,
They won't eat yer hay,
So fare well little darlin'
I'll feed on the way."

Text Authorship:

  • from Volkslieder (Folksongs)  [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by John Edmunds (1913 - 1986), "On top of Old Smokey", published 1953, copyright © 1953. [voice and piano] [ sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this page: Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website: 2018-12-04
Line count: 24
Word count: 116

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris