by John Jacob Niles (1892 - 1980)

Go 'way from my window
Language: English 
Go 'way from my window, go 'way from my door
Go 'way, 'way, 'way from my bedside and bother me no more,
And bother me no more
 
I'll give you back your letters, I'll give you back your ring
But I'll ne'er forget my own true love as long as songbirds sing,
As long as songbirds sings
 
I'll go tell all my brothers, tell all my sisters too
That the reason why my heart is broke is on account of you,
Is on account of you.
 
Go on your way be happy, Go on your way and rest
Remember, dear, that you're the one I really did love best,
I really did love best
 
Go 'way from my window, go 'way from my door
Go 'way, 'way, 'way from my bedside and bother me no more,
And bother me no more.

This text is often described as a folk text transcribed by Niles, but he wrote the text himself according to The Songs of John Jacob Niles: New Edition Containing Eight Additional Songs, with a Preface by John Jacob Niles, New York: G. Schirmer, Inc., 1993. From Niles's preface, dated 1975: "Because I have been a singer of traditional ballads like Barbary Ellen, Mattie Groves, and The Hangman, the half-informed have assumed that everything I sang was traditional music, whereas in fact much of it had been composed in the manner of the folk music with which I grew up and which is, even unto my eighty-fourth year, my area of operation .... Go 'Way From My Window, the first of my compositions, was written in 1907-1908 for a girl with blue eyes and blond hair of whom I was greatly enamored...." (Thanks to Rufus Browning for the information).


Text Authorship:

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


Researcher for this page: Christine Moore

This text was added to the website: 2008-02-25
Line count: 15
Word count: 141