Young and Growing- Harry Cox (Nor) 1953 REC
[Two stanza fragment on Rounder anthology CD1839, "What Will Become of England?" released in 2000.
Cox's first stanza is a floating one that is rare and I've only heard it in two other versions. Cf. Dubliners; also The Bonny Boy- Seán 'ac Dhonncha (Carna) 1955.
R. Matteson 2016]
Young and Growing- sung by Harry Cox of Catfield, Norfolk, who sang a fragment of Young and Growing in October 1953 to Peter Kennedy.
Oh, come all you pretty fair young maidens listen unto to me
And never build your nest in the dark of any tree
The green leaves they will wither, the roots they will decay,
And my bonny lad is young and he is growin'.
At the age of sixteen he was a married man
And at the age of seventeen, she brought him forth a son,
At the age of eighteen, on his grave the grass grew green
And that put an end to his growin'.