Annotation:Jeanie's Black E'e

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JEANIE'S BLACK E'E. AKA and see "I Am Asleep and Don't Waken Me (2)," "Past Twelve O'Clock on a Cold Frosty Morning," "Past One O'Clock on a Cold Frosty Morning," "Thamma Hulla." Scottish, Irish; Air (4/4 time). B Flat Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). AB. An ancient air, of unknown provenance (though either Irish or Scottish). Scottish versions of the air date to c. 1710. The words to the song were written by Hector MacNeill (1746-1818), a composer of verse (remembered for his songs) who was born in Edinburgh. He had a career in the navy, becoming an assistant secretary to two admirals, and lived much of his life in the west indies on the islands of Guadaloupe, Grenada and Jamaica before returning to the city of his birth in 1800.

The sun raise sae rosy, the grey hills adorning;
Light sprang the laverock and mounted sae hie;
When true to the tryst o' blythe May's dewy morning,
My Jeanie cam' linking out owree the green lea.
To mark her impatience I crap 'mang the brakens;
Aft, aft to the kent gate she turned her black e'e;
Then lying down dowylie, sigh'd by the willow tree,
"I am asleep, do not waken me."

Irish tune titles are taken from the last line of the song (See "Talk:I Am Asleep and Don't Waken Me (2)").

Source for notated version:

Printed sources: Neil (The Scots Fiddle), 1991; No. 36, p. 47.

Recorded sources:

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