Several versions of this song were collected in Newfoundland in the 20th century by Maud Karpeles and Kenneth Peacock.
Here is one collected by Peacock, and published in his book 'Songs of the Newfoundland Outports' (1965), and online in the GEST archive.


My Flora and Me

As sung by Arthur Nicolle, Rocky Harbour, Newfoundland, August 1958

As I roved out oh one evening in spring,
To hear those birds whistle and the nightingales sing,
Where the green fields and branches all covered with young,
And the small birds around me so joyful they sung.

Was there ever a young man so happy as me,
So happy as Flora, my Flora and me?
I will go to my Flora and this I will say:
"When shall we get married? - pray mention the day."

"To wed, gentle shepherd, my time is not come,
To wed, gentle shepherd, my age is too young,
I will first go to service till I'm twenty-one,
And then we'll get married if love follows on."

To fulfill her promise to service she went,
To wait on a lady it was her intent,
To wait on a lady, a rich lady gay,
Young Flora was clothed in most costly array.

The twelve-month being over, being over and spent,
I wrote her a letter to hear her intent.
The answer that she sent to me: 'Lead a long single life,
For I never intend to be a poor shepherd's wife.'

In reading those few lines it grieved my heart sore
To think that my Flora could love me no more,
To think that my Flora could be so unkind,
Like a false-hearted lovyer she soon changed her mind.

I wished I never knowed her, or she to know me,
I wish I never loved her, or she to love me,
My heart it's ensnared by her snowy-white breast,
And I'm deeply wounded, and I can't take no rest.

Oh once I was happy as a bud on a rose,
And now I'm so pale as the lily that grows,
Like a tree in yonder valley when the blooms are all gone,
Don't you see what I'm come to by loving but one?

To the green fields and branches we shall now bid adieu,
Likewise to my Flora, she proved so untrue,
Likewise to my Flora, she proved so unkind,
Like a false-hearted lovyer she soon changed her mind.