Pretty Polly- Paul Wiley (KY-WA) pre1964 REC
[From the CD 302: "Comin' Round the Mountain" from Voyager Recordings, VRCD 2005. Several other Appalachian version have the ship strike and iceberg and sink (see Brown/Abrams Collections).
Their liner notes follow.
R. Matteson 2016]
4. PRETTY POLLY Paul Wiley. Paul Wiley was born in 1935 in northeastern Kentucky, came to the Northwest in 1964, and raised his family in Alderwood Manor WA. His mother sang traditional songs, and his uncle, an older brother, and a sister all played the banjo. The unique ending of this version of Pretty Polly is the way Paul says he always used to hear it.
PRETTY POLLY- As sung by Paul Wiley.
O, where is Pretty Polly, over yonder she stands
O, Where is Pretty Polly, over yonder she stands
With rings on her fingers and lily-white hands
O, Polly, Pretty Polly, won't you come and go with me? (2x)
Before we get married, some pleasure we'll see
O, she hopped on the horse behind him and away they did go (2x)
And where she was going Pretty Polly did not know
They rode over mountains and valleys so deep (2x)
Pretty Polly didn't know it was her time to sleep
They came to a new dug grave, a spade was lying by (2x)
Pretty Polly then knew it was her time to die
She knelt down beside him , a-pleading for her life (2x)
Let me be a single girl, I cannot be your wife
O, he opened her bosom, as white as the snow (2x)
He stabbed through the heart and the blood it did flow
He threw some dirt over her and turned for to go (2x)
But where he was going in this world he did not know
He caught a ship a-sailing down by the seaside (2x)
He said to the captain he wanted to see the other side
He sailed upon the ocean, for many days they went (2x)
Til the ship struck an iceberg, to the bottom she went