Brisk Young Sailor- Mrs. Bowker (Lanc) 1909 Gilchrist
[Single stanza with music from George Butterworth Manuscript Collection (GB/12/8) additional text conveyed in Journal - Volumes 4-6, p. 17 English Folk Dance and Song Society - 1940.
R. Matteson 2017]
Gilchrist: Mrs. Bowker's five verses were very similar to James Bayliff's Westmorland copy but her last line had the Lancashire dialect form while=until.
"But a maid again I never will be
While apples grow on a cherry tree.
A Brisk Young Sailor- Words and tune from Mrs. Bowker of Sunderland Point, Lancashire in July, 1909; collected by Anne Gilchrist. Only the first stanza and last two lines were given by Gilchrist the other text is from the Bayliff version.
1. A brisk young sailor courted me,
And stole away my liberty.
My liberty and my free good will,
I must confess that I love him still.
2. There is an ale-house in the town
Where my love goes and sits him down,
And pulls a strange girl all on his knee-
And isn't that a grief to me ?
3. A grief to me, I'll tell you why,
Because she has more gold than I;
But the gold it'll waste and the beauty blast,
And she'll come a poor girl like me at last.
4. I wish my baby it was born,
Set smiling on its nurse's knee.
And I myself was in my grave
And the green grass growing over me.
5. I wish, I wish-- but it's all in vain-
I wish I was a maid again;
But a maid again I never will be
While apples grow on a cherry tree.