Come all ye fair and tender ladies
Be careful how you court young men.
They're like a star on a summer's morning.
First they appear and then they're gone.

They'll tell you some loving story
And then declare they love you well
Then away they'll go to court some other
And leave you there in grief to dwell

Do you remember our days of courting
When you lay your head upon my breast
You could make me believe with the falling of your arm
That I saw the sun rise in the West

My daddy he's a handsome devil
He's got a chain that's nine miles long
And on every link a heart does dangle
Of another maid he's loved and wronged

I wish I was a little sparrow,
And I had wings and I could fly
I'd fly away to my false true-lover,
And as he's talking I'd draw nigh.

But I am not a little sparrow,
I have no wings and cannot fly
So I sit here in grief and sorrow,
To weep and pass my troubles by.

If I had known before I courted
that love was such a killing thing
I'd a-locked my heart in a box of golden
and fastened it up with a silver pin.

Oh love is handsome, love is charming
And love is pretty while it's new
But love grows cold as love grows older
And fades away like morning dew