Come all ye fair
RA, 2008
Come all ye fair and tender ladies
Take a warning how you court young men
They're like the stars of a summer's morning
First they're here and then they're gone
They'll tell to you some loving stories
They'll swear their love for you is true
Straight way they'll go and court another
That's the love they bear for you:
I wish I'd known before I courted
I never would have courted none
I'd have locked my heart in a box of golden
Fastened it up with a silver pin
I wish I was a little sparrow
And I had wings and I could fly
I'd fly away to my false true lover
When he spoke I would deny
But I am not no little sparrow
I have no wings neither can I fly
So I'll sit down here and weep in sorrow
Try to pass my troubles by
I do remember our days of courting
When your head lay upon my breasts
You'd could make me believe that the sun in the morning
And the moon rose in the West
From Joan Baez perhaps.
About
The first line always continues "... and tender ladies". These songs of warning - lying, faithless, heartless men - have always been popular. But I like it - and at least she remembers the good times, perhaps a little untypically.