Pretty Polly- Rice (NC) 1916 Sharp A
[From English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians; Volume I; 1917 and 1932. Collected by Cecil J. Sharp and Olive Dame Campbell. Edited by Maud Karpeles. The 1932 notes follow.
One of the rare US version where William sees Polly's ghost: "He saw pretty Polly all in a gore of blood." This wording is not found in the broadsides. This is a standard Pretty Polly version with the "Willie leaving on ship which sinks" ending. Stanza 1 is part of the early Gosport broadsides.
According to a note in Sharp's MS: In Sharp A "second lines of Stanzas 2 and 7 were taken from other versions."
R. Matteson 2016]
No. 49. The Cruel Ship's Carpenter (1932 notes)
Texts without tunes:—Broadsides by Pitts, Jackson & Son, and Bloomer (Birmingham). Ashton's A Century of Ballads, p. 101.
Texts with tunes :—Christie's Traditional Ballad Airs, ii. 99. Journal of the Folk-Song Society, i. 172. Folk Songs from Somerset, No. 83 (published also in English Folk Songs, Selected Edition, i. 4, and One Hundred English Folk-Songs, p. 4). Cox's Folk Songs of the South , pp. 308 (see also further references) and 528. Wyman and Brockway's Twenty Kentucky Mountain Songs, p. 110, and Lonesome Tunes, p. 79. Journal of American Folk-Lore, xx. 262.
A. [Pretty Polly] The Cruel Ship's Carpenter- Sung by Mrs. TOM RICE at Big Laurel, N. C, Aug. 16, 1916
Hexatonic. Mode 4, b
O Polly, O Polly, if you will agree,
If you will agree and get married to me.
O William, O William, that never will do,
For I am too young to get married to you.
2 O Polly, O Polly, if you will agree,
It's I have a friend that we will go and see.
He led her over mountains and valleys so deep,
Till at length pretty Polly began for to weep.
3 O William, O William, you're leading me astray
On purpose my innocent heart to betray.
0 Polly, O Polly, I guess you spoke right,
1 were digging your grave the best part of last night.
4 She fold her arms around him without any fear.
How can you bear to kill the girl that loves you so dear?
Polly, O Polly, we've no time to stand,
And instantly drew a short knife in his hand.
5 He opened her bosom all whiter than snow,
He pierced her heart and the blood it did flow,
And into the grave her fair body did throw.
He covered her up and away did go,
He left nothing but small birds to make their sad mourn.
6 He entered his ship all upon the salt sea so wide,
And swore by his Maker he'd sail to the other side.
Whilst he was sailing on in his full heart's content,
The ship sprung a leak and to the bottom she went.
7 Whilst he was lying there all in his sad surprise,
He saw pretty Polly all in a gore of blood.
O William, O William, you've no time to stay,
There's a debt to the devil that you're bound to pay.