In London town where I did dwell
butcher boy I loved so well.
He courted me my life away,
But now with me he will not stay.

I wish, I wish, I wish in vain
I wish I were a maid again!
But a maid again I'll never be,
Till cherries grow on an apple tree.

I wish my baby it were born
And smiling on its daddy's knee
And me, poor girl, to be dead and gone,
With the long green grass growin' over me.

She went upstairs to go to bed
And calling to her mama said:
"Give me a chair till I sit down.
And a pen and ink while I write down."

And every word she dropped a tear
And every line cried, "Willie dear!"
Oh what a foolish girl was I
To be lead 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 words he found:

"Oh make my grave large, wide and deep,
Put a marble stone at my head and feet.
And in the middle a turtle dove
That the world may know I died for love."