I'll Go And 'List For a Sailor

Oh list, oh list to me sorrowful lay

And attention give to me song, I pray

When you've heard it all you'll say

That I'm an unfortunate tailor

For once I was happy as a bird in a tree

My Sarah was all in the world to me

Now I'm cut out by a son of the sea

And she's left me here to bewail her

Why did Sarah serve me so?

No more will I stitch and no more will I sew

Me thimble and me needle to the winds I'll throw

And I'll go and 'list for a sailor

Now me days were honey and me nights were the same

Till a man called Cobb from the ocean came

With his long black beard and his muscular frame

A captain on board of a whaler

Well he spent his money both frank and free

With his tales of the land and his songs of the sea

And he stole me Sarah's heart from me

And blighted the hopes of a tailor

Well, once I was with her, when in came Cobb

"Avast!" he cried, "you blubbery swab

If you don't knock off I'll scuttle your knob!"

And Sarah smiled at the sailor

So now I'll cross the raging sea

For Sarah's proved untrue to me

Me heart's locked up and she's the key

What a very unfeeling gaoler

And so now, kind friends, I'll bid you adieu

No more me woes shall trouble you

I'll travel the country through and through

And go and 'list for a sailor

* note: this song is also known as "The Unfortunate Tailor"