Digital Tradition Mirror

Streams of Lovely Nancy

(This score available as ABC, SongWright, PostScript, PNG, or PMW, or a MIDI file)
Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

Streams of Lovely Nancy

           C               F         C
Oh, the streams of lovely Nancy are divided in three parts
           G7
Where the young men and maidens they do meet their sweethearts.
        G7
It is drinking of good liquor caused my heart for to sing
         C               F                C
And the noise in yonder village made the rocks for to ring.

At the top of this mountain, there my love's castle stands,
It's all overbuilt with iv'ry on yonder black sand.
Fine arches, fine porches, like diamonds so bright,
It's a pilot for a sailor on a dark winter's night.

On yonder high mountain where the wild fowl do fly
There is one amongst them that flies very high.
If I had her in my arms, love, near the diamond's black land
How soon I would secure her by the sleight of my hand.

At the bottom of this mountain there runs a river clear.
A ship from the Indies did once anchor there,
With her red flags a-flying and the beating of her drum,
Sweet instruments of music and the firing of her gun.

So come all you little streamers that walk the meadows gay.
I will write to my own true love wherever she may be,
For her rosy lips entice me, with her tongue she tells me "No,"
And an angel might direct us, and where shall we go?
Oh, the streams of lovely Nancy are divided in three parts
Where the young men and maidens they do meet their sweethearts.
It is drinking of good liquor caused my heart for to sing
And the noise in yonder village made the rocks for to ring.

RPf

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!