Pretty Polly- (KY) 1923 Sharp and Raine BK
[From Mountain Ballads for Social Singing by James Watt Raine; Cecil J Sharp; Berea, Ky.: Berea College Press, 1923.
This version in Mountain Ballads has taken the melody from Sharp's EFFSA, version I. The text is from an unknown source and in stanza 11 it has Pretty Polly returning as a ghost with her baby- a very rare and unique stanza in Appalachia.
http://digital.berea.edu/cdm/fullbrowser/collection/p15131coll1/id/800/rv/compoundobject/cpd/804/rec/11
This version appears also in Bradley Kincaid's "My Favorite Mountain Ballads;" 1928.
R. Matteson 2016]
Pretty Polly- from Sharp and Raine, 1923
1. Oh where is Pretty Polly? Oh yonder she stands,
Gold rings on her fingers, her lily-white hands.
2. Polly, pretty Polly, come go along with me,
Let's take a little walk before we married be.
3. He led her thru the valleys and hollows so deep
At length pretty Polly began for to weep-
4. They went a little farther, she chanced to espy,
She saw her grave dug and the spade lying by.
5. Oh, William, Oh, William, Oh, William, said she,
I'm afraid you're going to take my sweet life away from me.
6. Poor Polly, Poor Polly, you've guessed it just right,
I was digging your grave the best part of last night.
7. He pierced her thru the heart and the blood it did flow,
And into the grave her fair body did throw.
8. The ship was lying ready, all on the sea side,
He swore by his Maker, he'd sail the other side.
9. And whilst he was sailing, in full heart's content,
The ship sprung a leak and to the bottom she went.
10. And there was Petty Polly, all in a gore of blood,
In her lily-white arms was an infant of God [1]
11. O William, O William, you've no time to stay,
There's a debt to the devil you're bound to pay.
1. the expression in stanza eleven seems to mean, "I call God to witness, she had an infant in her arms.