Polly on the Shore

Come all you wild young men

And a warning take by me,

Never to lead your single life astray

And into no bad company.

As I myself have done,

It being in the merry month of May,

When I was pressed by a sea-captain

And on board a man-o-war I was sent.

We sailed on the ocean so wide

And our bonny bonny flag we let fly.

Let every man stand true to his gun

For the Lord knows who must die.

Oh our captain was wounded full sore

And so were the rest of his men.

Our main mast rigging it was scattered on the deck

So that we were obliged to give in.

Oh our decks they were spattered with blood

And so loudly the cannons did roar;

And thousands of times have I wished myself at home

And all along with my Polly on the shore.

She's a tall and a slender girl,

She's a dark and a-rolling eye,

And here am I lie a-bleeding on the deck

And for her sweet sake I would die.

So farewell to me parents and me friends,

Farewell my dear Polly too.

I'd ne'er would have crossed this salt sea so wide

If I had have been ruled by you.