DAMSEL'S LAMENT (I NEVER SHALL MARRY)
(learned orally in the 1950s and from Charlie "Brown" Artman)
One day as I rambled, down by the seashore,
The shells in the ocean, my deathbed shall be.
My love came a-courtin', my love he did take,
(from miriam berg's folksong collection)
The wind it did whistle, the waves they did roar.
I heard a fair maiden make a pitiful cry.
It sounded so lonesome in the waters nearby.
I never shall marry, I'll be no man's wife,
I expect to live single for the rest of my life.
The fish in deep water shall swim over me.
She plunged her fair body in the waters so deep.
She closed her pretty blue eyes in the waters to sleep.
I never shall marry, (etc.)
And then when he left me, my heart it did break.
The ocean's my comfort, it's there I shall go,
The ocean shall keep me, this one thing I know.
I never shall marry, (etc.)