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Omie Wise

[ Roud 447 ; Laws F4 ; Ballad Index LF04 ; trad.]

Shirley Collins sang Omie Wise in 1959 on her first LP, Sweet England. The album's notes comment:

An American mountain murder ballad of the type derived from English folk song sources.

According to the Digital Tradition lyrics, in 1808 in Randolph County NC, Johnathan Lewis murdered Naomi Wise, who he had gotten with child and promised to marry. He escaped before conviction.

See also the related songs Pretty Polly and The Prentice Boy / H anged I Shall Be.

Lyrics

I'll tell you all a story about little Omie Wise,
How she was deluded by John Lewis's lies.
He promised to marry her at Adams's springs;
Said he'd bring her some jewels and many other fine things.

So Omie she met him down at Adams's springs;
And get up behind me Omie, to Squires we'll go.
She's got up behind him, so carefree we'll go,
They rode till they come where the river did flow.

“John Lewis, John Lewis, come tell me your mind,
Now do you mean to marry me or leave me behind?”
“Little Omie, poor Omie, I'll tell you my mind,
I minded here to drown you and leave you behind.”

He stabbed her till heart, her heart's blood did flow
Down into the river her body he threw.
Two little boys were fishing just at the break of dawn,
They spied poor little Omie come a-floating along.

They arrested John Lewis, they arrested him today,
They buried little Omie down in the cold clay.
“My name it is John Lewis, my name I'll never deny,
I murdered little Omie, I'll never reach the sky.”

“Go hang me, go kill me, for I am that man,
I drownded my true love down by the old mill dam.”
John Lewis was took a prisoner some six months or more,
And then he broke jail into the army he did go.