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''Sweet Polly Oliver'' is an English broadside ballad (Roud #367), traceable from 1840 or earlier. It is also known as "Pretty Polly Oliver" and has several variant sets of lyrics, set to a single anonymous melody. It is one of the best known of a number of folk songs describing woman disguising themselves as men to join the army to be with their lovers. Thomas Root wrote a symphonic band arrangement and Benjamin Britten wrote an arrangement for voice and piano. ==Lyrics== : As sweet Polly Oliver lay musing in bed, : A sudden strange fancy came into her head. : "Nor father nor mother shall make me false prove, : I'll 'list as a soldier, and follow my love." : So early next morning she softly arose, : And dressed herself up in her dead brother's clothes. : She cut her hair close, and she stained her face brown, : And went for a soldier to fair London Town. : Then up spoke the sergeant one day at his drill, : "Now who's good for nursing? A captain, he's ill." : "I'm ready," said Polly. To nurse him she's gone, : And finds it's her true love all wasted and wan. : The first week the doctor kept shaking his head, : "No nursing, young fellow, can save him," he said. : But when Polly Oliver had nursed him back to life : He cried, "You have cherished him as if you were his wife". : O then Polly Oliver, she burst into tears : And told the good doctor her hopes and her fears, : And very shortly after, for better or for worse, : The captain took joyfully his pretty soldier nurse. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Sweet Polly Oliver」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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