February 2024: I Wonder When I Shall Be Married

Submitted by Derek Piotr

I recently collected a version of “I Wonder When I Shall Be Married” from famed writer Roxana Robinson, at her home in North Cornwall, Connecticut. While the song is primarily attributed to the Ritchie family of Viper, Kentucky, Roxana had learned it from her family in Pine Mountain, and sings it to a different tune.

The song is strangely neutral in tone: the lyrics speak of hope and anticipation, yet the overall tone of the song is melancholic and open-ended.

This song also has the distinction of being the seven hundredth song I have recorded for my Fieldwork Archive!

Hear Roxana Robinson sing “I Wonder When I Shall Be Married:”

Lyrics

I wonder when I shall be married,
Be married, O be married,
I wonder when I shall be married,
For my beauty’s beginning to fade.

My mother she is so willing,
So willing, O so willing,
My mother she is so willing,
For she has more daughters than I.

My father has forty good shillings,
Good shillings, O good shillings,
My father has forty good shillings,
And they will be mine when he dies.

My shoes they have gone to be mended,
Be mended, O be mended,
My shoes they have gone to be mended,
And my petticoat gone to dye green.

And they shall be ready by Sunday,
By Sunday, O by Sunday,
And they shall be ready by Sunday,
And then shan’t I look like a queen.

O say, won’t I be a bargain,
A bargain, O a bargain,
O say, won’t I be a bargain,
For someone to carry away.

I wonder when I shall be married,
Be married, O be married,
I wonder when I shall be married,
For my beauty’s beginning to fade.

Derek Piotr is a folklorist, researcher and performer whose work focuses primarily on the human voice. His work covers practices including fieldwork, vocal performance, preservation and autoethnography; and is primarily concerned with tenderness, fragility, beauty and brutality. His work has been supported by The Traditional Song Forum and The Danbury Cultural Commission, and has featured on Death Is Not the End and the BBC. He recently launched the Fieldwork Archive.