Pretty Polly- Stoggill (IN) 1938 Lomax REC
[My title. Text from: Toward the Indexing of Ballad Texts by George List; The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 81, No. 319 (Jan. - Mar., 1968), pp. 44-61.
After singing the informant comments, "I can't have ... that's all I know of it."
R. Matteson 2014]
Pretty Polly ATL 422.7. No title. Sung by Marion Stoggill, Elkinsville, Indiana, April 4, 1938. Collected by Alan and Elizabeth Lomax for the Library of Congress.
1. "Let's go down, little, pretty Polly,
Come get you down from here,
For six pretty fair maids have I drownded here
And the seventh you shall be, shall be,
And the seventh you shall be."
2. "And get you down, you pretty Polly,
And... of thee,
For... are too fine and too costly
For to rot in the salt sea, the sea,
For to rot in the salt sea."
3. "Now turn your back around to me
And view the leaves upon the tree,
For I don't ... to a villain as you
A naked woman should see, should see,
A naked woman should see."
4. He turned his back... to her
And viewed the leaves upon the tree,
Then she picked up ...
And ... him into the sea, the sea,
And she ... him into the sea.
5. "O, pull me out, you pretty Polly,
Come pull me out," said he.
"O, no, I won't... you, .. .
6. "Just lay there, lay there, you false-hearted villain
.. 'feared of me,
For if six pretty fair maids that you drownded here
And the seventh you shall be, shall be,
And the seventh you shall be."