Come all ye fair and tender maidens
Take warning how you court young men
They're like a star of a summer's morning
First they appear and then they're gone
They'll tell to you some loving story
They'll swear to you their love is true
Straight away they go and court another
And that's the love they have for you
If I had known before I courted
That love it was such a killing thing
I'd a-locked my heart in a box of golden
And fastened it up with a silver pin
Do you remember our days of courting
When your head lay upon my breast
You could make me believe with falling of your arm
That the sun rose in the west
I wish I was a little sparrow,
And I had wings and I could fly
I'll fly away to the my own true-lover,
And when he'll speak I would deny.
But I'm not no little sparrow,
I have no wings niether can I fly
I sit right down in my grief and sorrow,
And let my troubles pass me by.
Come all ye fair and tender maidens
Take warning how you court young men
They're like a star on a summer's morning
First they appear and then they're gone