Uploaded October 2020 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
Day 209 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Sandburg writes: "Suppose a bashful girl and a backward young man are lonesome at a party or picnic. Can they do better than to sing this just to see how it goes as a duet? The spoken line can be varied to "But I don't see how you expect me to stay here deserted, forlorn, isolated, eating my heart out, all by myself.” A Hudson river steamboat deck favorite on moonlight nights. . . . Text and tune from Magda Brooks of New Paltz, New York."
An earlier version was published in 1909 by H. M. Belden in Ballads and Songs collected by the Missouri Folk-Lore Society. The last two verses of my recording are extra verses Belden published.
Day 209 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Sandburg writes: "Suppose a bashful girl and a backward young man are lonesome at a party or picnic. Can they do better than to sing this just to see how it goes as a duet? The spoken line can be varied to "But I don't see how you expect me to stay here deserted, forlorn, isolated, eating my heart out, all by myself.” A Hudson river steamboat deck favorite on moonlight nights. . . . Text and tune from Magda Brooks of New Paltz, New York."
An earlier version was published in 1909 by H. M. Belden in Ballads and Songs collected by the Missouri Folk-Lore Society. The last two verses of my recording are extra verses Belden published.
