COME ALL YE FAIR AND TENDER LADIES
(learned from Pete Seeger album during the 1950s)
Come all ye fair and tender ladies
Take warning how you court young men
They're like the stars of a summer's morning
First they appear, and then they're gone
If I had known before I courted
I never would have courted none
I'd'a locked my heart in a box of golden
And fastened it up with a silver pin
I wish I was a little swallow
And I had wings and I could fly
I'd fly away to my false true lover
And when he'd speak, I would deny
But I am not a little swallow
I have no wings, neither can I fly
So I'll sit down and weep in sorrow
And try to pass my troubles by
O don't you remember our days of courtin'
When your head lay upon my breast,
You could make me believe by the fallin' of your arm
That the sun rose in the west
(from miriam berg's folksong collection)