The Night Visiting Song / The Cocks Are Crowing / Adieu Unto All True Lovers
[ Roud 22568 ;
The night is past, love, I can no longer tarry The tempest rages, I must obey I must away, love, without a slumber Into the arms of the deep.
When he came to his true-love’s dwelling He knelt down upon a stone; He whispered softly through her window, ‘Does my true-love lie alone?’
She lifted her head from her lily-white pillow She lifted the sheets from off her breast; She whispered softly through her window, ‘Who is disturbing my night’s rest?’
‘It’s I, it’s I, your own true lover, Open the door, and let me in For I am tired, love, likewise and weary I am wet, love, unto the skin.’
She got up with the greatest of pleasure She opened the door and let him in; They lay all night in each other’s arms ‘Til the long night was past and gone.
When the long night was past and over When the cocks began to crow He hugged and kissed her, and then he left her He mounted his horse, and away did go.
The night is past, love, I can no longer tarry The tempest rages, I must obey I must away, love, without a slumber Into the arms of the deep.
Now, there’s another belief that, we’ll say, two people have a date tonight, or tomorrow night, or something. They say, ‘We’ll meet at eight o’clock.’ And meantime, one of them dies, or is accidentally killed or something. They have to keep that date unless they say, ‘God willing’ or ‘if I’m alive.’ They reckon if you say that, you don’t have to keep that particular date. Now, whatever happens you, that party will let you back for one night only, from midnight (which the old people reckoned was the hour of the dead) until the rooster or the cock crows in the morning. And it has to be a ‘March rooster’ – that means, the eggs have to be laid in March, and they have to be hatched in March. I mean, if you get eggs that was laid in February and hatched in March, the cock (or the rooster) is no good to you. So you got to have the eggs laid- And the rooster, the cock crows the first at five, the second at six, and the third at seven. And that’s been proved! Lately, since all the good watches came around, they never miss a beat: the first crow is a five.
This man was drowned off a horse into the raging tempest. And his girlfriend was expecting him home to her place, to be with her. And he didn’t come; she went in to bed. And about the middle of the night she heard the voice outside the door. And she lifted her head up, and she said, ‘Who is there?’ and he said, ‘It’s me.’ Then she thought he was coming at last. And she had no idea was he dead until he said he had to go when the cock crow. And although he was wet, she had no idea he was dead. He spent a night with her.
Peter Shepheard sang Night Visiting Song in 2012 on Shepheard, Spiers & Watson’s Springthyme CD Over the High Hills. They noted:
A woman is woken in the night by her lover’s knock at the window. He is but the ghost of her lover and must depart before sunrise to return to the other world.
There are many versions of this collected from recent living tradition in Scotland and the evidence of the night visitor being a returning ghostly lover is not always present. The titles vary: I Must Away, The Porter Laddie, Night Visit Song, The Lover’s Ghost. This version is largely from the singing of Duncan Johnstone of Torwood, Birnam recorded by Peter Shepheard in 1967 (Springthyme 67.4.3) but with the tune and some text from Bella Higgins and Andra Stewart recorded by Hamish Henderson in Blairgowrie in 1958.
The indicators of the supernatural are the departure of the lover as the cocks begin to crow, the sounding of his trumpet as he leaves and his statement that he “must cross the morning’s tempest”—a return journey to the other world. The song may ultimately derive from, or is at least related to, the ballad named by Francis James Child as The Grey Cock (Child 248) and also Sweet William’s Ghost (Child 77).
Sometimes called ''I Must Away Now'' .This was the last song Luke Kelly sang on stage before his death.
Luke Kelly Version
I must away now,I can no longer tarry, This morning's tempest,I have to cross, I must be guided,without a stumble, Into the arms I love the most
And when he came to his true love's dwelling, He knelt down gently,upon a stone, And through her window,he whispered lowly Is my true lover within at home.
Wake up,wake up love it is thine own true lover, Wake up,wake up love and let me in, For I am tired love and oh so weary, And more than near drenched to the skin.
She's raised her up,her down soft pillow, She's raised her up,and she's let him in, And they were locked in,each other's arms, Untill that long night was past and gone.
And when that long night was pased and overm And when the small clouds,began to grow, He's taken her hand amd they kissed ands parted, Then he saddled and mounted,and away did go.