Floating down the tide

Floating down the tide

Roud 1414

1. O eight long months she’s been with child
   She cried unto her love
   Crying: Johnny, dearest Johnny
   Prove kind and marry me
   
   
2. Go home to your parents
   And do the best you can
   And tell them that young Johnny
   Has proved a false young man
   
   
3. I shan’t go to my parents
   For the shame of my disgrace
   But I will go and drown myself
   Into some lonesome place
   
   
4. Then she pulled out her fine cloth
   Her body to destroy
   Saying: Farewell, false-hearted Johnny
   For your sweet sake I die
   
   
5. As Johnny was a-walking
   Sown by some riverside
   he saw his own dear Polly
   Come floating down the tide
   
   
6. Then he pulled off his small cloth
   His body to destroy
   He clutched his hands on Polly
   His dear and only joy
   
   
7. Saying: I’ve no friends or relations
   My dear to mourn for me
   ‘Tis on the cold and clutty banks
   I’ll die with my Polly
   
   

Susan Williams, Haselbury, Somerset; collected by Cecil Sharp 27th Dec 1905

Floating down the tide - tune,

Cecil Sharp MSS, Folk Words pp.795-796 / Folk Tunes p.706