Sarah Makem sang the "Oh, what a foolish girl was I" line in the fifth verse of "The Butcher Boy" as recorded by Diane Hamilton in 1956 and released on her Musical Traditions anthology "As I Roved Out": In London city where I did dwell A butcher boy, I loved right well He courted me, and me heart away And then with me, he would not stay. I wish, I wish, but it's all in vain I wish I was a maid again A maid, a maid I ne'er shall be 'Til cherries grow on an apple tree. I wish my baby it way born And smiling on its daddy's knee And I poor girl to be dead and gone And the long green grass growing over me. She went upstairs to make her bed And calling up her mother said "Get me a chair 'til I sit down A pen and ink 'til I write down." At every word she dropped a tear And every line cried, "Willie dear. Oh, what a foolish girl was I To be led astray by a butcher boy." He went upstairs and the door he broke, He found her hanging from a rope. He took his knife and he cut her down And in her pocket, these lines were found. Dig my grave wide large and deep Put a marble stone at my head and feet And in the middle, a turtle dove, That the world may see I died for love.
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