Come all you wild young men and a warning take by me
Never lead your single life astray or into bad company
As I myself have done, being all in the month of May
When I, as pressed by a sea captain, a privateer to trade
To the East Indies we were bound to plunder the raging main
And it`s many the brave and a galliant ship we sent to a watery grave
Ah, for Freeport we did steer, our provisions to renew
When we did spy a bold man-of-war sailing three feet to our two
Oh, she fired across our bows, Heave to and don`t refuse
Surrender now unto my command or else your lives you`ll lose
And our decks they were sputtered with blood and the cannons did loudly roar
And broadside and broadside a long time we lay till we could fight no more
And a thousand times I wished myself alone, all alone with my Polly on the shore
She`s a tall and a slender girl with a dark and a-rolling eye
And here am I, a-bleeding on the deck and for a sweet saint must lie
Farewell, my family and my friends, likewise my barley too
I`d never have crossed the salt sea wide if I`d have been ruled by you
And a thousand times I saw myself again, all alone with my Polly on the shore