Pretty Polly- Uncle Pat Frye (NC) 1944 Abrams REC
[From: W. Amos Abrams Folksong Collection; “Pretty Polly, performed by Uncle Pat Fry,” Appalachian State University Digital Collections.
In Appalachia, "Pretty Polly" has been incorporated in a cycle of 3/4 time songs that include stanzas from the Cuckoo, Wagoner's Lad, Rye Whiskey, etc. Other informants (see McDowell, TN) know the ballad only in this format. It was first collected this way by Isabel Rawn in 1914 in Georgia- the MS was given to Olive Dame Campbell and is in the Sharp MS collection.
R. Matteson 2016]
"Pretty Polly" - Recorded in East Bend, NC on September 2, 1944 from Uncle Pat Fry (singer). Transcribed R. Matteson.
The cuckoo is a pretty bird she sails as she flies,
She tells us glad tidings, she tells us no lie[s].
The cuckoo don't holler, but three times a year,
Oh and when she cuckoos, cause you know summer's near.
Pretty Polly, pretty Polly would you think it unkind,
For me to sit by you and tell you my mind.
My mind is to marry and never to part,
For the first time is saw you you wounded my heart.
So my horses are not hungry and they won't eat your hay,
So farewell Pretty Polly, I'll feed on my way.
And if I get tired I'll slow down and cry,
And think of Pretty Polly and wish she was mine.