Polly On The Shore Lyrics - Sandy Denny

Come all you wild young men and a warning take by me 

Never lead your single life astray or into bad company 

As I myself have done, being all in the month of may 

When i, as pressed by a sea captain, a privateer to trade 

To the east indies we were bound to plunder the raging main 

And it's many the brave and a galliant ship we sent to a watery grave 

Ah, for freeport we did steer, our provisions to renew 

When we did spy a bold man-of-war sailing three feet to our two 

Oh, she fired across our bows, ``heave to and don't refuse 

Surrender now unto my command or else your lives you'll lose'' 

And our decks they were sputtered with blood 

And the cannons did loudly roar 

And broadside and broadside a long time we lay 

Till we could fight no more 

And a thousand times I wished meself alone, 

All alone with me polly on the shore 

She's a tall and a slender girl with a dark and a-rolling eye 

And here am i, a-bleeding on the deck 

And for a sweet saint must die 

Farewell, me family and me friends, likewise me polly too 

I'd never have crossed the salt sea wide 

If I'd have been ruled by you 

And a thousand times I saw meself again, 

All alone with me polly on the shore