Wind Across the Moor

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Twas a cold winter's night and the wind
Blew bitter across the wild moor
Twas then that poor Mary returned with her child
Wandering home to her own father's door.

Crying "Father, I pray, let me in!
Oh come down and open the door!
Or the child that I hold at my bosom will die
As the wind blows across the wild moor."

"Oh why did I leave that fair spot
Where I was happy and free
Forever to roam without friend or a home?
Pray father, take pity on me!"

Her father was deaf to the cry
When the sound reached him over the door
And the watchdog he barked at the wind as it blew
Coldly across the wild moor.

You can't think what a father he felt
When he came to the door in the morn
Poor Mary his daughter lay dead with the child
Clasped alive in the dead mother's arms

With vengeance he tore his grey hair
On his Mary he gazed from the door
Twas on that cold night that she perished and died
As the wind blows across the wild moor

The father in grief pined away
And the child to its mother went soon
There's no-one alive there to this very day
And the cottage to ruins has gone

The villager points out the cote
Where the wild rose droops over the door
Twas there Mary died by the house of her bride
As the wind blows across the wild moor

The Digital Tradition has the following version, with fascinating variants. (I reproduce the error in the second-last stanza without correction.)

WINDS BLEW ACROSS THE WILD MOOR
(MARY DIED AT HER FATHER'S DOOR)

On a cold winter's night
When the winds blew across the wild moor
Young Mary came wandering with her child in her arms
till she came to her own father's door

"Oh father, dear father," she cried
"Come down and open the door
Or the child in my arms, it will perish and die
By the winds that blow across the wild moor"

But the old man was deaf to her cries
Not a sound of her voice reached his ear
The watchdog did howl and the village bell tolled
And the winds blew across the wild moor

Oh, how must the old man have felt
When he came to the door in the morn?
Young Mary was dead, but the child was alive
Close pressed in its dead mother's arms

Ah, frenzied he tore his grey hairs
While the tears down his cheeks they did pour
Saying, "This cold winter's night, she has perished and died
By the winds that blew across the wild moor"

The old man grieved, pined away
And the child to its mother went soon
does No on, they say, has lived there to this day
And the cottage has gone to ruin

And the villagers point out the spot
Where the willows weep o'er the door
Saying, "There Mary died, once a gay village bride
By the winds that blew across the wild moor"

@death @family @ballad @tearjerker
printed in Folk Songs Out of Wisconsin
filename[ WILDMOOR
Tune file : WILDMOOR

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Wind Across the Moor is sung by John Copper and Jon Dudley on the Coppersongs3 CD; it is in neitherThe Copper Family Song Book, nor Bob Copper's book, A Song for Every Season. Transcription by Garry Gillard.

Coppersite

New: 8 November 1998 | Now: 8 November 1998