Sweet Fern - Original - The Carter Family

Springtime is coming, sweet lonesome bird

Your echo in the woodland I hear

Down in the meadow so lonesome you’re singing

While the moonlight is shining so clear

But I know he’s away in a far distant land

A land that is over the sea

Go fly to him singing your sweet little song

And tell him to come back to me

Sweet Fern (Sweet Fern) Sweet Fern (Sweet Fern)

Oh, tell me, is my darling still true

Sweet Fern (Sweet Fern) Sweet Fern (Sweet Fern)

I’ll be just as happy as you

Well, a-lee-oh-lay-ee

Well, a-lee-ho-lee-oh-lay-ee

Yeah, lee-oh-lay-ee-hee-oh

Lee-oh-lay-ee

Oh, tell me, sweet Fern, is he thinking of me

And the promise he made long ago

He said he’d return from over the sea

Oh, why do the earth roll so slow

But I know he’s away in a far distant land

A land that is over the sea

Go fly to him singing your sweet little song

And tell him to come back to me

Upon my finger he placed a small ring

On the day he was leaving his home

I promised I’d be his own dear little girl

And love him wherever he’d roam