User:Memtgs/sandbobox/The Butcher Boy (folk song)

"The Butcher’s Boy" or "The Butcher Boy" (Laws P24, Roud 409) is a traditional English broadside ballad which has become popularly known throughout the United States as a folk song.

In the song, a butcher’s apprentice abandons his lover after impregnating her. The lover hangs herself and is discovered by her father. She also leaves a suicide note, which prescribes that she be buried with a turtle dove placed upon her breast. This symbolic use of the turtle dove is derived from its Old World role of an emblem of love; it is analogous to the folksong interment motif of a rose, briar, or lily growing out of the neighboring graves of deceased lovers. In this respect, "Butcher's Boy" is related to the ballads "Earl Brand", "Fair Margaret and Sweet William", "Lord Thomas and Fair Annet", "Barbara Allen", and "Lord Lovel".

Variations
Note some versions sing "till cherries grow on an apple tree." The location of the song also varies in certain versions; some set the song in More Street, or London City.

Recently, the ballad has been popularly covered by artists such as Joan Baez, Sinéad O'Connor, and Kirsty Maccoll.

External references

 * Butcher's Boy at the Folk Music Index