> Waterson:Carthy > Songs > Time to Remember the Poor

Time to Remember the Poor / The Snow Is on the Ground

[ Roud 1121 ; Ballad Index Wa161 ; Wiltshire 485 ; DT RMMBPOOR ; Mudcat 66058 ; trad.]

Frank and Anne Warner collected The Snow Is on the Ground in 1951 from Mrs. Eleazar Tillett of the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Their recording was included in 2000 on the Appleseed anthology of the music of Frank Profitt and North Carolina, Nothing Seems Better to Me (he Warner Collection Volume II). Their son Jeff Warner sang The Snow Is on the Ground in 2005 on his CD Jolly Tinker. This track was also included in 2006 on the Free Reed anthology Midwinter. Jeff Warner noted:

This is another song from the repertoire of Eleazar Tillett [collected on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in 1941]. I have found the song (without music) in the 1853 edition of the Forget Me Not Songster. Though Eleazar’s tune is different, the song was also collected in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire, England, in the early 1900s.

Bill Shute and Lisa Null sang Remember the Poor in 1980 on their Green Linnet album American Primitive. They noted:

Remember the Poor comes from the repertoire of Carrie Grover, a Maine woman who collected and learned the songs of her Nova Scotia family and childhood. She published these in her book A Heritage of Songs (Norwood, PA, Norwood Editions, 1973). She says, “When mother was a little girl, she knew an old lady who was so helplessly crippled by rheumatism that she had completely lost the use of her limbs. Each morning some member of the family would place her in her big rocker and there she would sit all day, rocking and singing old songs and hymns. She sat with her right elbow in the padded arm of her chair, ceaselessly rubbing her thumb back and forth across the first joint of her right finger, as these were the only fingers she could move, mother said that from hearing the old lady singing … she learned … Remember the Poor.

From singing this song, I have learned to enjoy winter again. It’s not easy with the mounting cost of wood and oil, or the long snowy drives from gig to gig. I love the natural images, the strange tune, and the hint of ritual mumming customs.

Tuning: DADGAD (key of D). This tuning is favoured by many of the British guitarists and is also a standard old-time banjo tuning. It allows many “cluster” effects while being neither major or minor. The tune itself is interesting for its almost equal use of the major and flatted sevenths of the scale. The chromaticism of the third line (“all nature seems touched by the finger of Death”) is wonderful. Ken [Bloom] contributes some ominous piping and Tom [Conger]’s electric bass anchors the other instruments.

The Mellstock Band played The Wounded Hussar and sang Time to Remember the Poor in 1996 on their WildGoose album of music of rural England, Tenants of the Earth. They noted:

The Wounded Hussar was one of the few slow instrumental tunes to feature widely in the repertoires of English fiddlers, appearing in many nineteenth-century fiddlers’ manuscripts including those of the Hardy family. The following song was collected in Yorkshire by the Victorian musicologist Frank Kidson.

Nowell Sing We Clear sang Time to Remember the Poor in 2000 on their Golden Hind album Just Say Nowell. They noted:

A remarkable tune from Kidson’s Yorkshire collection, this time from his Traditional Tunes (pp. 170-171). The text is found on broadsides though we couldn’t improve on the set used by Dave Townsend and the Mellstock Band on their recording Tenants of the Earth.

Mick Ryan and Pete Harris sang Time to Remember the Poor in 2001 on their WildGoose album The Long Road. They noted:

Mick originally came across this song in rehearsal with the band ‘Crows’ about twenty years ago. Nothing came of it then; but the title, and more or less only the title, stuck in his mind. He recently found the song again, on the internet. He has substantially re-written the words and ‘invented’ a tune which may or may not resemble the original. [The original] version was collected in Devon by Baring-Gould.

Coope Boyes & Simpson, Fi Fraser, Jo Freya and Georgina Boyes sang Time to Remember the Poor in 2006 on their No Masters album Voices at the Door. They noted:

This song was sent to the Leeds song collector and antiquarian, Frank Kidson (1855— 1926), by his longtime research associate, Charles Lolley. Mr Lolley was a bricklayer and fiddle player with a great interest in traditional songs. His father had kept a country pub in Howden in the East Riding of Yorkshire where Charles had heard and learned many songs and tunes, including this evocative winter admonition from an anonymous local singer. “Time to Remember the Poor” wrote Frank Kidson when he published the song in his collection of Traditional Tunes in 1891, “is a great deal in advance of the usual street ballad, and the air is an excellent one.” Although it appeared on broadsides printed in Cheltenham, Birmingham and several sources in London, however, the song has only rarely been collected from singers—among them Mrs Eleazar Tillett from Wanchese in North Carolina, who sang it for Anne and Frank Warner in 1951. Jim Boyes added the final verse.

Waterson:Carthy sang the Yorkshire version of this song, Time to Remember the Poor, on their 2006 album Holy Heathens and the Old Green Man. Martin Carthy noted:

Mr Lolley’s a name which crops up time and again in the correspondence of the Yorkshire collector Frank Kidson as a conduit and it is he who sent him Time to Remember the Poor. Clearly it’s an Art Song, but it is in no way out of place in his or any collection: what we have is a good piece of songwriting and a well timed piece of comment.

Debra Cowan sang The Snow Is on the Ground on her 2009 album Fond Desire Farewell. She noted:

Collected from Eleazer Tillett by Jeff [Warner]’s parents, Anne and Frank Warner, this song conveys to me that special beauty that only winter can bring. In Tillett’s version, the second line reads “And the birds is all dropped from the trees”. We decided to go back to the song titled Remember the Poor from the Forget Me Not Songster for the original lyric. Other changes made in the lyrics came from another version of the song performed by the New England-based quartet Nowell Sing We Clear.

GreenMatthews sang Time to Remember the Poor on their 2011 CD A Victorian Christmas.

Alice Jones and Bryony Griffith sang Time to Remember the Poor on their 2023 album of winter songs and tunes from Yorkshire, Wesselbobs. They noted:

Alice found this song printed in Frank Kidson’s 1891 publication Traditional Tunes. The song tune and words were noted down by Kidson’s long-standing song collecting collaborator Charles Lolley who was from Howden in East Yorkshire. It was a popular parlour song of the Victorian era and it exists in broadside form published by many different printers in the early – mid 1800s.

Cooper & Toller sang Time to Remember the Poor as a round on their 2024 album Year’s End. They noted:

Based on Roud 1121. The full version of this song is the last in Frank Kidson’s 1891 book Traditional Tunes. It was given to Frank by Charles Lolley who in turn got it from an unnamed East Riding singer. Frank says, “Time to Remember the Poor is a great deal in advance of the usual street ballad, and the air is an excellent one.” Despite this, we’ve chopped most of the words out and butchered the tune to make it into a short round.

Lyrics

Nowell Sing We Clear sing Time to Remember the Poor

Old Winter is come with its cold chilling breath
And the leaves are all gone from the trees
All nature seems touched by the finger of death
And the lakes are beginning to freeze
When your minds are annoyed by the wide swelling flood
And your bridges are useful no more
When in plenty you enjoy everything that is good
That’s the time to remember the poor

The cold air and snow will in plenty descend
And whiten the prospect around
The keen cutting wind from the north will attend
And cover it over the ground
When the hills and the dales are all candied with white
And the rivers are froze on the shore
When the bright twinkling stars they proclaim the cold night
That’s the time to remember the poor

The poor timid hare through the woods may be traced
By her footsteps indented in the snow
When our lips and our fingers are all dangling with cold
And the marksman a-shooting doth go
When the young wanton lads on the river slide
And the icicles hang at your door
When in plenty you are sitting by a warm fireside
You will tremble to think of the poor

For the times fast a-coming when our Savior on earth
All the world shall agree with one voice
All nations unite to salute the blest morn
And the whole of then earth shall rejoice
When grim death is deprived of its killing sting
And the grave rules triumphant no more
Saints angels and men hallelujah shall sing
Then the rich must remember the poor

Jeff Warner sings The Snow Is on the Ground

Cold winter is come with its keen cutting breath,
And the birds is all dropped from the trees.
All nature seems touched at the finger of death,
And the streams are beginning to freeze.
When the hills and the dales are all covered in white
And Flora attends us no more,
When you sit by your fireside, reviving and hot,
Will you grumble to think on the poor?

When the north wind’s ascending and chilling the ground
And the sportsmen again shooting go,
And the happy young lads o’er the rivers can slide
And the bridges are useful no more.
When the lakes are all froze with winter’s cold breath,
And the rivers congeals to the shore,
When your bowl smokes with something reviving and hot,
It is time to remember the poor.

When the poor harmless hare, he is tracked to the woods
With his footsteps all dandied in snow,
And the robin red breast he approaches your cot,
And the icicles hang at the door.
𝄆 But the time it will come when our Saviour we’ll see,
And the grave is triumphant no more,
All the saints and the angels hallelujah shall sing,
And the rich will remember the poor. 𝄇

Waterson:Carthy sing Time to Remember the Poor

Cold winter is come, with its cold chilling breath
And the leaves are all gone from the trees.
And all seems touched by the finger of death
And the streams are beginning to freeze.
When the young wanton lads o’er the river slide,
When Flora attends us no more,
When in plenty you are sitting by a warm fireside:
That’s the time to remember the poor.

The cold feather’d snow will in plenty descend
And whiten the prospects around.
The keen cutting wind from the North will attend
And cover it over the ground.
When the hills and the dales are all candied with white
And the rivers are froze on the shore,
When the bright twinkling stars they proclaim the cold night:
That’s the time to remember the poor.

The poor timid hare through the woods may be traced
With the footsteps indented in the snow,
When our lips and our fingers are dangling with cold
And the marksman a-shooting does go.
When the poor Robin Redbreast approaches your cot
And the icicles hang at the door,
And when your bowl smokes reviving and hot:
That’s the time to remember the poor.

The thaw shall ensue and the waters increase
And the rivers vehemently grow;
The fish from oblivion obtains its release
And in danger the travellers go.
When your minds are annoyed by the wide swelling flood
And your bridges are useful no more;
When in plenty you enjoy everything that is good
Do you grumble to think of the poor?

The time will come when our Saviour on Earth
All world shall agree with one voice.
All nations unite to salute the blest morn
And the whole of the Earth shall rejoice.
When grim death deprived of its killing sting
And the grave rules triumphant no more
Saints, angels and men Hallelujah shall sing
Then the rich must remember the poor.

Debra Cowan sings The Snow Is on the Ground

Cold winter is come with its cold chilling breath
And the verdure’s all dropped from the trees
All nature seems touched by the finger of death
And the streams are beginning to freeze
When the hills’ and the dales are all covered with white
And Flora attends us no more
When you are enjoying a good fire-side
Will you grumble to think on the poor?

When the north wind’s ascending and chilling the ground
And the sportsmen again shooting go
And the happy young lads o’er the rivers can slide
And the icicles hang at your door
When our lips and our fingers are trembling with cold
And the rivers are froze on the shore
When the bright twinkling stars they proclaim the cold night
It’s the time to remember the poor

When the poor harmless hare is tracked to the woods
With his footsteps indented in snow
And the robin red breast he approaches your cot
And in danger the traveler goes
When your minds are annoyed by the wide swelling flood
And the bridges are useful no more
When your bowl warms with something reviving and hot
Will you grumble to think on the poor?

Soon a day it will come when our Saviour we’ll see
All nations shall join in one voice
All the world shall unite to salute the sweet ‘mom
All the ends of the earth shall rejoice
When grim death’s deprived of his killing sting
And the grave rules triumphant no more
𝄆 Saints, angels and men hallelujah shall sing
That’s the time to remember the poor 𝄇