Collected by Merlin Mitchell Sung by Mrs. Ben Wages
Transcribed by Mary C. Parler Fayetteville, Arkansas
May 27, 1950
Reel 53, Item 2
Oh, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie (old version and tune)
Oh, bury me not on the lone prairie,
These words came slow and mournfully
From the pallid lips of a youth who lay
On his cold dark bed at the close of day.
Chorus:
Oh, bury me not on the lone prairie,
Where the wild coyotes will howl over me,
Where the cold winds sweep and the grasses wave,
No sunbeams rest on the prairie grave.
.... find till o'er his box (?),
Death is a slowly gathering now,
He thought of his ....
As the cowboys gathered to see him die.
Again he listened to well-known words,
To the winds so strong and the song of birds,
He thought of his home and his native bowers,
Where he loved to roam in his ... hours.
Chorus:
(Repeat)
Again he listened to well-known words,
To the winds so strong and the song of birds,
He thought of his home and his native bowers,
Where he loved to roam in his ... hours.
I've ever wished that when I die
Let there the place of my last rest by,
Oh, bury me not on the lone prairie.
Chorus:
(Repeat)
Then o'er my slumbers a mother's prayers
And a sister's tears will be mingled there,
For 'tis sad to know that the heart throbs o'er
And that his (phantom?) will pass no more.
Chorus:
(Repeat)
Oh, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie (Cont.)
Reel 53, Item 2 (Cont.)
In my dreams I thought that his voice failed there,
And we paid no heed to his dying prayer;
In a narrow grave six feet by three,
They buried him there on the lone prairie.
Chorus:
(Repeat)
May the light winged birds lie forced to rest (?)
O'er him who sleeps on the prairie's crest,
May the stately ... in the breezes wave
O'er him who sleeps in a prairie grave.
Chorus:
(Repeat)