Mudcat is great for collecting such strings of comment and information on songs, so thanks. Songs such as this work for me because they remain ambiguous, and don't spell out the story. So I tend to stick with versions that don't add extra explanatory verses or words to round it off - as also Dominic Behan did with Carrickfergus for example, but that is several other threads.

This is just personal preference of course, those who want to straighten picture frames live here too, and it is often only through their intervention that we have the song at all and can then trace it back.

Our minds want to recognise or project patterns, so we clothe what we hear with meaning and in our imagination we fill out a picture or create a story, and that is part of the pleasure of our response in hearing or singing a song. So we practice being sad about an imagined grief, just as a kitten practices being fierce, or scared, or brave. With a song lke this, it can be the grief we choose.

Chris