The Lover’s Tasks Lyrics. Source: “80 Appalachian Folk Songs” collected by Cecil Sharp and Maud Karpeles
Go and tell him to clear me one acre of land
Setherwood sale, rosemary and thyme
Between the sea and the sea-land side
And then he’ll be a true lover of mine
Go and tell her to sew me a cambrick shirt
Without any needle or needle’s work
Go and tell him to plow with a plow of old leather
And hoe it all down with a pea fowls feather
Go and tell her to wash it in yonder well
Where never was water or rain ever fell
Go and tell him to plant with one grain of corn
And reap it all down with an old ram’s horn
Go and tell her to hang it on yonder thorn
Which never bore leaf since Adam was born