Brisk Young Sailor- anon (Norfolk) 1908 V, Williams
[No informant named. From: Ralph Vaughan Williams Manuscript Collection (at British Library) (RVW2/4/49). The first line of the last stanza is similar to a quote made by Lady Shalott who died for the love of Lancelot.
R. Matteson 2017]
A Brisk Young Sailor- unknown informant from Ranworth, Norfolk on April 17, 1908; Collected Ralph Vaughan Williams
A brisk young sailor first courted me
When he stole away my liberty
He took my heart wit h a free good will
With all his faults I love him still
There is an alehouse in our town
My true love he was in, he sets himself down
And takes a strange girl on his knee
And don't you think it a grief for me?
A grief for me I'll tell you for why,
Because she's got more gold than I;
His gold will waste and her beauty will fail,
She'll become a poor girl like me some day
[When] I once [wore] my apron's low.
My love Followed me through frost and snow;
But now my apron's tied up to my chin,
My love passes by and he never comes in.
I wish, I wish twas all in vain
I wish't I was a maid again,
A maid again I never shall be
Till Apples grow on an orange tree.
[If you] will dog my grave long and deep,
A marble stone at my head and feet
There was on my grave a white turtle dove,
To show the world I died for love.
I died for love you can plainly see,
I died for a young man who never loved me,
I died for love you can plainly see,
I died for a young man who never loved me.