A Sailor's Life

From the Penguin Book of English Folk Songs

 

A sailor's life is a merry life,

They rob young girls of their heart's delight;

Leaving them behind to sigh and mourn,

They never know when they will return.

 

Here's four and twenty all in a row,

My sweetheart cuts the brightest show;

He's proper tall, genteel withal,

And if I don't have him I'll have none at all.

 

O father fetch me a little boat,

That I might on the ocean float;

And every Queen's ship that we pass by,

We'll make enquire for my sailor boy.

 

We had not sailed long upon the deep,

Before a Queen's ship we chanced to meet;

"You sailors all come tell me true,

Does my sweet William sail among your crew?"

"O no fair lady he is not here,

For he is drowned we greatly fear,

On yon green island as we passed by,

There we lost sight of your sailor boy."

 

She wrung her hands and she tore her hair,

Much like a woman in great despair;

Her little boat 'gainst a rock did run,

"How can I live now my William is gone?"