Floating down the tide

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Floating down the tide

Roud number 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