Polly Primrose

DESCRIPTION: "Sweet Polly Primrose, a girl of nineteen summers-o, Sure, I love my Polly better than all the wealth I own." Now she is at the bottom of the sea; she fell off a ship in rough waters. The singer wishes he were a fish, so he might see her as a mermaid
AUTHOR: G. W. Hunt (source: FolkSongAndMusicHall)
EARLIEST DATE: 1869 (Little-Maggie-May-Songster)
KEYWORDS: death ship separation mermaid/man drowning
FOUND IN: Ireland
REFERENCES (6 citations):
Henry/Huntingdon/Herrmann-SamHenrysSongsOfThePeople H734, p. 149, "Polly Primrose" (1 text, 1 tune)
Little-Maggie-May-Songster, p. 40, "I Wish I Was a Fish" (1 text)
Love-Among-the-Roses-Songster, p. 9, "I Wish I Was a Fish" (1 text)
Williams-Love-Among-Big-Nozes-Songster, p. 28, "I Wish I Was a Fish, or Sweet Polly Primrose" (1 text)
Howes-GreatLondonFemaleMinstrelSongster, p. 9, "I Wish I Was a Fish" (1 text)
FolkSongAndMusicHall, "I wish I was a fish (Sweet Polly Primrose)"
Roud #9450
SAME TUNE:
The Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, third part ("Why did I leave my native land, Poor Robinson did cry") (BrokenDownSongster, p. 22)
File: HHH734

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