Public Domain and Traditional Bluegrass Song P-Q-R
1841-56 Pioneer songster
25. Pretty Polly
The English song known as "Polly's Love; or, The Cruel Ship
Carpenter," according to Cox, is condensed from a long eighteenth-
century broadside, "The Gosport Tragedy; or, The Perjured Ship
Carpenter." The Harvard Library has an American broadside of
about 1820. Scarborough prints five tunes; Mackenzie, one.
The story begun in the Douglass version may be completed by
comparison with other versions. In Scarborough (C) the man
proposed marriage, but Polly refused because she was too young.
After the murder he went on shipboard; the ship sank, and he
saw a vision of Polly and a child, warning him of the debt he
must pay the devil. In Cox (A) he died raving mad; in (C) a
sailor stepped on the grave, and a woman with a child in her
arms appeared, a sign that the ship would be unlucky. In "Polly's
Love," referred to by Cox, William was torn to pieces by the
girl's ghost. A long, detailed version (23 stanzas) appears in Macken-
zie.
The texts vary. Brown presents four versions, of which (A) and
* Note by original copyist: You may use either the last line of the
19th verse or the line below.
By killing of your servent man
Songs and Ballads front the British Isles 6j
(B) are much alike and much longer than Douglass. The verses given
in Douglass, however, have lines quite similar to a section of Brown
(A), beginning with Browfi's stanza n. Scarborough (C) is fairly
close to Douglass. Scarborough (A) and Cox (A) repeat the first
line of each stanza; Scarborough (B) has no dialogue; Scarborough
(D), (E), and (F) are so modernized that the man kills the girl
with a revolver instead of a sword.
Pretty Polly
i. Come Polly come Polly come go along with me
Before we are married some friends for to see
He led her ore hills ore valleys so deep
At last pretty Polly sat down for to weep
2. O Billy O Billy you have led me a stray
On purpos my innocent life for to stay
Polly O Polly O that is what I have
1 was all the last night a digging of your grave
3 . She went a little farther as she did spy
A grave being dug and a spade standing by
Her lilly white hand in sorrow she rung
Begging for mercy cries what have I done
4. In an instant he drew a bright sword in his hand
ROLL ON, BOYS
Sung by John D. Vass, Virginia, 1960
1
Roll on, boys,
You make your time;
I am so broke down,
I can't make mine.
2
I look at the sun,
And the sun looks high;
I look at the boss,
And close my eye.
3
Roll on, boys,
You make your dough;
I'm so broke down,
I cannot go.
4
I once was young,
As you must see;
But age has got
The best of me.
5
Roll on, boys,
The time's not long;
You'll call my name
And I'll be gone.
6
Roll on, boys,
And make your dough;
Don't look for me,
I am gone, you know.
7
Someday you'll think
Of me, I know,
When you are old
And cannot go.
8
May God but spare
You all along,
Forgive us all
For all our wrongs.
The singer said these words were uttered by an old man who'd worn himself out in a wheelbarrow gang working in the ore mines.
It may be related to the NC song, "Some of these days and it won't be long," possibly of Negro origin.
P. 47, with musical score.
Herbert Shellans, 1968, "Folk Songs of the Blue Ridge Mountains," Oak Publications.