Brisk Young Sailor- Emma Overd (Som) 1904 Sharp MS
[Single stanza with music. Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at Clare College, Cambridge) (CJS2/10/328). The last three stanzas are from "Constant Lady" broadside also resemble end of the Pitts' Sheffield Park (borrowed from Constant Lady").
R. Matteson 2017]
Brisk Young Sailor- Emma Overd of Langport, Somerset on August 19, 1904- Sharp MS
1. A brisk young sailor came courting me
He stole away my liberty.
He stole it way with free good will
And he's got it now and keeps it still.
2. There is an alehouse in our town
My love he walks and sets himself down
And takes another young girl on his knee
And don't you think it's a grief to me?
3. A grief a grief I'll tell you for why
My love he has got more gold than I
His gold will flee and his beauty will fade
And then he will come like me at last
4. O once I could tie my apron strings low
My love followed me through frost & snow
But now I tie them up to my chin
My love passed by and say [says] nothing.
5. I wish to the Lord my babe was born
Set smiling in its daddy's arms
And I myself all in the cold clay
And the green grass growing over me.
7. She chose the green grass for her bed
And a wreath of roses round her head
She closed her eyes and never more spoke
Alas poor girl her heart was broke
8. O what a foolish young girl she must be
To think I love no other but she
Young men are not made to love alone
They're always made to love & to roam
9. O hark! O hark! and I can tell
I thought I heard her mournful bell
I'm glad to hear she did so well
For I'd like to hear that mournful bell.