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'Twas of a lady in the west counteree,
She was clothed all in green;
As she looked out from her father's castle wall,
And she saw a ship sailing in.
"O, daughter, O, daughter," her father did say,
"What makes you look so pale and wan?
You must have some sort of sickness," he said,
"Or be in love with some young man."
"O, father, O, father," the daughter did say,
"'Tis no wonder for me to look so pale and wan;
For what do grieve my poor heart," she said,
"My true love is so long at sea. "
"O, is he a lord, or is he a duke,
Or a man of high degree?
Or is he one of my seven sea boys,
That ploughs the raging sea?"
"He is no lord, nor he is no duke,
Nor a man of high degree;
But he is one of your seven sea boys,
That ploughs the raging seas."
"O, daughter, O, daughter," her father did say,
"Is that the truth you are telling me?
For to-morrow morning at eight o'clock,
It is hanging he will be."
"O, father, O, father," the daughter did say,
"Is this the truth you are telling to me?
For if you do hang mine own true love,
You will get no good of me."
He called down his seven sea boys,
By one, by two, by three;
Young Barbour he always used to be the first,
But the last came down was he.
Young Barbour he came a-trembling down,
He was clothed all in silk;
With his cherry cheeks like the roses red,
And his skin so white as milk.
"O, daughter, O, daughter," the father did say,
"'Tis no wonder for you to look pale and wan;
For if I was a woman instead of a man,
I would die for the love of him."
"Will you wed my daughter?" the father did say,
"Will you take her by the hand?"
And will you come down and dine with me,
And be heir to all my lands?"
"Yes, I will marry your daughter," he said,
"I will take her by the hand;
I will come down and dine with you," he said,
"And a fig for all your land!"
"If you can give her a guinea a day,
I can give her thirty and three;
Although they calls me the Young Barbour,
That ploughs the raging sea."
Collected in 1920 from Maude Roberts and published in Ballads And Sea Songs Of Newfoundland by Elisabeth Bristol Greenleaf and Grace Yarrow Mansfield (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1933; Folklore Associates, Hatboro, PA, 1968).
