A Pound of tow: together with The downhill of life

“A Pound of Tow” is not widespread but it was among the repertory of the old folk singer Uncle Peter as described in the Lowell Offering in 1845 and was collected by Vance Randolph in Springfield, Missouri, in 1934. In 1792 Robert Burns wrote a short poem called “The Weary Pund o’ Tow” on the same topic to the same tune (Lowell Offering 84; Randolph 3:123 #398; Kinsley 494-95).

Tow is the short fiber left after flax has been processed for spinning. Hackling removes the very short pieces of tow and bits of flax straw, leaving only the long hank of flax for spinning. The tow itself is used for sacking, candlewicks, tow ropes, and other similar coarse materials. This particular song may be a reference to the widespread story in which a poor man’s wise daughter is set to impossible tasks, one of which is to weave a pound of tow.

The second song on this sheet is also that of a man talking about his lifestyle. Written by English actor/poet John Collins (d. 1808), “The Downhill of Life” was sometimes called “Tomorrow; or, The Happy Fellow.” This is the same kind of narrative as Walter Pope’s “An Old Man’s Wish,” a song that Benjamin Franklin knew and sang (Franklin, letter; Baird 12, 19; Schnapper 539).

In the Coverly text, the speaker has a philosophical acceptance of the end of his life, with moderate expectations of comfort. Heaven is not in his plan except in the last line where he hopes to become “everlasting” tomorrow. The musical setting in the Boston Musical Miscellany uses a repetition of the last word and then the last line to finish out the tune. Set in 3/4 time, the tune is simple and easy to sing, perhaps crafted for the stage, but more likely devised for the amateur singer in the parlor. The text enjoyed several newspaper printings in 1804 and appeared on broadsides and in songsters well into the nineteenth century; it appeared in sixty-five songsters between 1796 and 1820 (Newburyport [MA] Political Calendar, August 6, 1804; Middlebury [VT] Mercury, September 5, 1804; Roud #1308; R. Keller, Early American Songsters).