We Poor Sailors- Donovan (ME) 1929 Barry E
[My title, see also Pound 1914. From British Ballad From Main; Barry and all; 1929. Obviously the first two lines of the chorus are missing.
R. Matteson 2014]
THE MERMAID
(Child 289)
E. [We Poor Sailors] Capt. Charles L. Donoven of Jonesport, in a letter dated February 28, 1929, quotes the lines:
We poor sailors go skimming through the tops,
while the land lubbers lay down below, down below, below,
While the land lubbers lay down below.
"This," he adds, "is a real chantey." Of the chanteys as sung by the sailors, he says that "they usually made up the main part, and brought in the chorus, all singing together and repeating it several times."