Seventeen Come Sunday
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"Seventeen Come Sunday" is an English folk song which was used in the first movement of Ralph Vaughan Williams' English Folk Song Suite and a choral version by Percy Grainger (1912). The words were first published between 1838 and 1845 [1].
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[edit] Lyrics
As I walked out on a May morning, on a May morning so early,
I overtook a pretty fair maid just as the day was a-dawning.
Chorus:
With a rue-rum-ray, fol-the-diddle-day,
Whack-fol-lare-diddle-I-doh.
Her eyes were bright and her stockings white, and her buckling shone like silver,
She had a dark a roving eye, and her hair hung over her shoulder.
Where are you going, my pretty fair maid? Where are you going, my honey?
She answered me right cheerfully, I've an errand for my mummy.
How old are you, my pretty fair maid? How old are you, my honey?
She answered me right cheerfully, I'm seventeen come Sunday.
Will you take a man, my pretty fair maid? Will you take a man, my honey?
She answered me right cheerfully, Ooh, I dare not for my mummy.
But if you come round to my mummy's house, when the moon shines bright and clearly,
I will come down and let you in, and my mummy shall not hear me.
So I went down to her mummy's house, when the moon shone bright and clearly,
She did come down and let me in, and I lay in her arms till morning.
So, now I have my soldier-man, and his ways they are quite winning.
The drum and fife are my delight, and a pint of rum in the morning.
[edit] Other uses
The Roud Folk Song Index gives 30 versions of "The Overgate" (Roud 866) and 242 versions of "As I Roved Out" (Roud 277). Both of these songs are so similar to "Seventeen Come Sunday" that for most purposes they can be considered the same song.
Versions of the song have been recorded by Steeleye Span (Storm Force Ten, 1977 ), The Bothy Band (Live in Concert, 1995), John Kirkpatrick (Force of Habit, 1996), Fairport Convention (The Cropredy Box, 1998), Waterson:Carthy (A Dark Light, 2002), Dalla (Rooz, 2007).
