It was early, early on a sunny day in spring

My love has 'listed for to serve the king

And the wind blow high and the wind blow low

And it parted me and my young sailor boy
"Father, father, will you build me a boat

That on the cold ocean I may float?

And every king's ship that we pa** by

There make inquiries for my sailor boy"
She hadn't been a-sailing so very far upon the deep

When her first king ship she chanced to meet

And it's, “Captain, captain, please tell me true

Does my sweet William sail on board with you?â€
"What colour is your true lover's hair?

What sort of jacket does your true love wear?"
"His jacket's blue, it's piped round with gold

And his hair it is the same colour as yours"
"Oh no, fair maiden, I'm afraid he isn't here

But he's been drownded, that I greatly fear

On yon green ocean as we pa**ed by

There we lost sight of your young William boy"
Didn't she wring her hands a little while and tore her hair

Much like some maiden in great despair

"Oh happy, happy is the girl," she cried

"What has her own true lover by her side"
Her father he came home late at night

He's looking round for, for his heart's delight

He went upstairs and the door he broke

And he found her hanging by a rope
Didn't he take him a knife so long and sharp and cut her down

And in her bosom well a note was found

Being written in blood just to testify

That for her true love William she did die
"Won't you dig me a grave so very wide, so very deep

And put a marble stone at, at my head and feet

And in the middle place a snow-white dove

Just to let the world know that I died for love"