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.
As sung by Martin Carthy