Sweet Willie- Alice Tucker (MD) pre1944 Carey
[From Maryland Legends and Folk Songs, Carey, 1971. His notes follow. Before her death in 1944 the informant, Alice Ridgeway Tucker, who lived in Davidsonville, Maryland, and her daughter wrote down 113 of her songs.
R. Matteson 2017]
Sweet Willie
From the repertoire of Mrs. Tucker. This song is very much akin to "The Sailor Boy," found in Laws, Broadsides, pp. 146 f. Yet in most versions of this song the girl ends her life by borrowing a boat and deliberately crashing it on the rocks. The ending of this particular version is more common to other songs; to wit, "The Butcher Boy," Laws, Broadsides, p. 260.
Sweet Willie- from Alice Ridgeway Tucker, who lived in Davidsonville, Maryland before 1944.
1. "O Captain, Captain, give me a boat;
Out on the ocean I shall float,
And hail every ship as they pass by
Until I find my Willie boy."
2. "O Captain, Captain, tell me true;
Does my sweet Willie sail with you?"
"O no, he does not sail with me,
His body sleeps beneath the sea."
3. . . .
. . . .
"Last Sunday night when the wind blew high,
We chanced to lose your sailor boy. "
4. "Give me a chair and I'll sit down,
A pen and ink to write it down;
On every line I'll drop a tear,
Calling to my Willie dear. "
5. "I went upstairs my will to make;
My mother knew the same to take,
She came running up there too,
Crying, 'Daughter, Daughter, what shall I do?"
6. 'Dig my grave both wide and deep
Marble stone at head and feet,
And on my breast a turtle dove;
Let the whole world know I died for love. "