Adieu Lovely Nancy
Source: The Stone Fiddle by Paddy Tunney
Location: New Edition, page 112 / 113
“Adieu lovely Nancy, it’s now I must leave you.
To the far off West Indies I mean for to steer.
But let my long absence be of no trouble to you.
My dear I’ll come back in the course of a year.”
“Talk not of leaving me here, lovely Jemmy.
Talk not of leaving me here on the shore.
You know very well you long journey will grieve me,
As you sail the wild ocean, where the loud billows roar.
“I’ll cut off my ringlets all curly and yellow,
And dress in the clothes of a young cabin boy,
And when we are out on the dark rolling ocean
I will always be near you, my pride and joy.”
“Your lily-white hands could not handle the cables
Your lily-white feet to the top-mast won’t go
Not the cold winter storms, you could not endure them.
Stay at home Lovely Nancy where the wild winds won’t blow.”
As Jemmy set sailing, lovely Nancy stood wailing.
The tears from her eyes in great torrents did flow.
As she stood on the beach sure he hands she kept ringing,
Crying “Och! and alas! will I e’er see you more?”
As Jemmy was walking on the quays of Philadelphia,
The thoughts of his true love they filled him with pride.
Crying “Nancy, lovely Nancy, if I had you here love,
How happy I’d be for to make you my bride.”
Jemmy wrote a letter to his own lovely Nancy
Saying “If you do prove constant sure I will prove true.”
But Nancy was on deathbed and could not recover.
The day that he left her forever he’d rue.
Come all you young maidens, a warning take by me,
And don’t trust a sailor or one of his kind.
For first they will court you and then they’ll deceive you,
Their love it is tempestuous like the wavering wind.