I'll hang my harp from a willow tree, I'm off to the war again

voiceRecorded and edited by Tom Beasley Sung by Mrs. Almeda Riddle Lone Pine, Arkansas Dec 31, 1963 Reel 425, Item 14 **HANG THY HARP FROM A WILLOW TREE** 1. I'll hang my harp from a willow tree, I'm off to the war again, My peaceful home has no charm for me, And the battle holds no pain. 2. The lady I love will soon be a bride, With a diadem on her brow, Why did she flatter my boyish pride, She's going to leave me now. 3. Why did she flatter my boyish pride, She's going to leave me now. 4. She took me away from a war-like lord, Gave me a silken suit, I cared no more for my master's sword, When I played on my mistresses flute. 5. She seemed to think me a boy above, Her other pages of low degree, If I'd but loved with a boyish love, It would have been better for me. 6. But when smiles await the bridal pair, I will hasten and give them mine, in the crowd I'll be so gay, I'll flush my pale cheeks with wine. 7. Then one tress of her golden hair I'll twine, In my hemlet (?) saber's plume, Out on the fields of Old Palestine, I'll seek me an early doom. 8. And if by a Saracen's sword I fall, Mid the noble and the brave, A tear from a lady love is all, I ask and a warrior's grave. (5)Funding for digitization provided by the Arkansas Humanities Council and the Happy Hollow Foundation