Note: This song has a chorus. The italicized lines are meant to
be sung in between the verses. This song has some uncommon elements in
it which make it interesting: the fact that the girl was sentenced to
some years in a penal colony, that her sweetheart vows to wait for
her, and that in all this glowing relationship they apparently had,
she committed some dreadful crime (or was thought to). She's still a
lucky girl, I think, especially given most of the men immortalized in
English folk songs.
My love she was fair and my love she was kind
And cruel the judge and jury that sentenced her away
For thieving was a thing that she never was inclined to
They sent my love across the sea ten thousand miles away
All round my hat I will wear the greenie willow
All round my hat for a year and a day
And if anyone should question me the reason for my wearing it
I'll tell them my own true love is ten thousand miles away
I bought my love a golden ring to wear upon her finger
A token of our own true love and to remember me
And when she returns again we'll never more be parted
We'll marry and be happy for ever and a day
Seven, seven long years my love and I are parted
Seven, seven long years my love is bound to stay
Seven long years I'll love my love and never be false-hearted
And never sigh or sorrow while she's far, far away
Some young men there are who are preciously deceitful
A-coaxing of the fair young maids they mean to lead astray
As soon as they deceive them, so cruelly they leave them
I'll love my love for ever though she's far, far away
Irish folk song, original author unknown. Popular in the
early 1800s as a humorous ballad, in the Cockney dialect and with
slightly different verses. Date of composition uncertain.
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