Sweet Poll of Plymouth's Lament

DESCRIPTION: "O William, dearest William hear, While yet the ship is nigh" how much the singer grieves to see him leave. She wonders if he will ever return. She imagines his death. "But still sweet Poll of Plymouth lives In melancholy song."
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1787 (Country Journal and Poughkeepsie Advertiser, according to Nestler)
KEYWORDS: sailor separation death
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (1 citation):
ADDITIONAL: Harold Nestler, "Songs from the Hudson Valley" (article in _New York Folklore Quarterly_, Volume V, #2, Summer 1949), pp. 82-83, "Sweet Poll of Plymouth's Lament" (1 text)
NOTES [79 words]: Nestler thinks this "follows traditional patterns." It seems awfully flowery to me, and there is no evidence that it ever had a tune. But I can't prove it wasn't traditional.
There is another song sort-of-traditional song, "Sweet Poll of Plymouth." They both involve sailors leaving Poll in Plymouth -- but in "Sweet Poll of Plymouth," the girl dies; in "Sweet Poll of Plymouth's Lament," William is the one who dies. So I'm tentatively splitting them. But I'm not sure. - RBW
Last updated in version 4.4
File: HaNeSPPL

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