Come all you fair and tender ladies

Come all you fair and tender ladies,

Be careful how you court young men;

They're like a star of a summer's morning,

They'll first appear, and then they're gone.

They'll tell to you some loving story,

They'll declare to you their love is true;

Straight-way they'll go and court some other,

And that's the love they'll have for you.

I wish I was some little sparrow,

That I had wings, could fly so high;

I'd fly away to my false true lover,

And when he's talkin', I'd be by.

But I am not some little sparrow,

And neither have I wings to fly;

I'll set down here in grief and sorrow

To weep and pass my troubles by.

If I'd a-known before I courted,

I never would have courted none;

I'd a-lock'd my heart in a box of golden,

And pinn'd it up with a silver pin.