Davy Arthur SA1980.06.2
This is another of Davy’s contributions to the homely ceilidh in January 1980 when younger island singers presented their favourite songs of the moment and it is another of the songs he learned from The Corries folk duo. This song seems to have been better known in Canada, especially in Newfoundland, judging by the numerous versions collected by Edith Fowke and Helen Creighton, two pioneer Canadian folksong collectors. (Roud no.2280).
O Peggy Gordon, you are my darling,
Come sit ye down upon my knee;
And tell tae me the very reason
Why I am slighted so by thee.
I am love, I cannot deny it;
My heart lies troubled in my breast.
It’s not for me to let the world know it;
A troubled heart can find no rest.
I put my head tae a cask o’ brandy.
It is my fancy so to do;
For when I’m drinking I’m seldom thinking
Or wishing Peggy Gordon was here
I wish I was away in Ingo
Far away across the briny sea,
Sailing over the deepest waters
Where love and care ne’er bothered me
I wished I was in a lonely valley
Where womenkind cannot be found
And all the small birds they change their voices
With every moment a different sound.
O Peggy Gordon, you are my darling,
Come sit ye doon upon my knee;
And tell tae me the very reason
Why I am slighted so by thee.
Why I am slighted so by thee.