Ah! With the first three words the song popped into my head. I can't read it without singing. Eugene Field, Little Boy Blue - that was one of my favorite songs that my father sang. He also put another Field poem to music, "The Little Peach." That one was a little more sinister.

Folk songs are full of love, violence, gore, murder, drama . . . I'm sure it's why I have a great love of murder mysteries now. :)