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

Straightway they'll go and court another

And that's the love that they had for you. 



If I'd a known before I courted

That love it was such a killin' thing

I'd lock my heart in a box of golden

And fastened it up with a silver chain.



O do you remember our days of courtin'

When your head lay upon my breast

You could make me believe with the falling of your eyes

That the sun rose in the west.



I wish I was a little sparrow

And I had wings and I could fly

I'd fly away to my own true lover

And when he speaks I won't deny.



But I am not no little sparrow

I have no wings neither can I fly

I'll 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 of a summer's morning

First they appear and then they're gone.