From 'Rambling Boys of Pleasure' - the greatest description of youth in oral literature: after the singer has been rejected by his lover because of his poverty; "For I am young and the world is wide"
A description of pregnancy from the ballad, 'Gil Morris' by a woman confessing to her husband that the youth he has just killed is not her lover but her illegitimate son:
"I once was full of Gil Morris as the hip is of the stone"
(the rose hip is a berry made up of a large stone surrounded by a thin layer of flesh)
A bad weather omen from, 'Sir Patrick Spens':
"I saw the new moon yester-e'en with the old moon in her arms"
A declaration of love by a defiant young woman from 'Bonny Peggy':
"It's I would lie in Jimmy's arms 'though his grave was growing green"
They don't write them like that any more!
Jim Carroll