Uploaded May 2021 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
Sandburg writes: "We can't resist quoting from a letter of Mary 0. Eddy in Perrsyvil!e, OMo. "My sister and I are reasonably well and happy living in our old home here. The old people who sang for me years ago are gone, and their songs are no longer sung. I can still visualize old Henry Maurer who sang The Lily of the West with much gusto. He always stood up to sing, and always buttoned his coat for the effort. I stood by him and sang with him!"
This definitely serves to make us feel the song is a good one and worth our singing. To the gracious Miss Eddy we will offer the ancient Irish toast, "May the road to hell grow green waitin' for you."
There are many versions to this song tracing back to Ireland. Sandburg’s version is the one I grew up knowing (although I don’t remember where I first heard it). Of course, on face value it’s a frontier song from Kentucky where some seductive, wily temptress angered her boyfriend to the point of killing a man who flirted with her. Well, that’s how I read it when I was young. Of course, now I see in Sandburg’s version there is some necessary reading between the lines, as well as a sense of ambiguity (which I believed Sandburg loved.) Flora was certainly a lady of the evening, sweet talking any potential client, and the singer of the song felt so jealous he resorted to murder. Sandburg leaves the singer’s fate to our imagination.
Sandburg writes: "We can't resist quoting from a letter of Mary 0. Eddy in Perrsyvil!e, OMo. "My sister and I are reasonably well and happy living in our old home here. The old people who sang for me years ago are gone, and their songs are no longer sung. I can still visualize old Henry Maurer who sang The Lily of the West with much gusto. He always stood up to sing, and always buttoned his coat for the effort. I stood by him and sang with him!"
This definitely serves to make us feel the song is a good one and worth our singing. To the gracious Miss Eddy we will offer the ancient Irish toast, "May the road to hell grow green waitin' for you."
There are many versions to this song tracing back to Ireland. Sandburg’s version is the one I grew up knowing (although I don’t remember where I first heard it). Of course, on face value it’s a frontier song from Kentucky where some seductive, wily temptress angered her boyfriend to the point of killing a man who flirted with her. Well, that’s how I read it when I was young. Of course, now I see in Sandburg’s version there is some necessary reading between the lines, as well as a sense of ambiguity (which I believed Sandburg loved.) Flora was certainly a lady of the evening, sweet talking any potential client, and the singer of the song felt so jealous he resorted to murder. Sandburg leaves the singer’s fate to our imagination.
