Song Ballet [Soldier Life]- Edwards (GA) 1914 Rawn
[From: Cecil Sharp Manuscript Collection (at VWML) (CJS1/11/123). This MS was given to Olive Dame Campbell by Isabel Rawn of Mount Berry, Georgia who collected ballads there while she was at college and later teaching.
The stanzas are not properly ordered but have been left as they appeared.
R. Matteson 2017]
Song Ballet [Soldier Life]- sung by Ethel Edwards of Georgia on February 19, 1914
Soldier life is a dreary life,
It robs poor girls of their hearts' delight
It causes then to weep it causes them to mourn
For the loss of a true love never to return
"Captain, captain tell me true
Does my sweetheart dwell with you?"
No kind miss, he is not here
He got killed in a battle, my dear."
Hand me a chair and I sit down,
A pen and write it down.
At every line I drop a tear
At very verse cry: "Willy my dear!"
Oh father oh father go build me a boat
That I may o n the ocean float"
I hail every boat as I pass by
and I inquire of my sweet sailor boy.
It's on the rocks went[1] as I passed by
There I let your true love lie.
1. when