"Seventeen Come Sunday", also known as "As I Roved Out", is an English

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

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Roud The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud. Roud's Index is a combination of the Broadsid ...

277,

Laws Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior, with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been variously described as a Socia ...

O17) which was arranged by

Percy Grainger Percy Aldridge Grainger (born George Percy Grainger; 8 July 188220 February 1961) was an Australian-born composer, arranger and pianist who moved to the United States in 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long and ...

for choir and brass accompaniment in 1912 and used in the first movement of Ralph Vaughan Williams' '' English Folk Song Suite'' in 1923. The words were first published between 1838 and 1845. According to Roud and Bishop

"This was a widely known song in England, and was also popular in Ireland and Scotland. It is one of those which earlier editors, such as
Sabine Baring-Gould Sabine Baring-Gould (; 28 January 1834 – 2 January 1924) of Lew Trenchard in Devon, England, was an Anglican priest, hagiographer, antiquarian, novelist, folk song collector and eclectic scholar. His bibliography consists of more than 1,240 pu ...
and
Cecil Sharp Cecil James Sharp (22 November 1859 – 23 June 1924) was an English collector of folk songs, folk dances and instrumental music, as well as a lecturer, teacher, composer and musician. He was a key figure in the folk-song revival in England dur ...
, felt obliged to soften or rewrite for publication. It was also common on broadsides throughout the nineteenth century"

An earlier version was first printed on a broadside of around 1810 with the title ''Maid and the Soldier''. Early broadside versions were sad songs focused on the abandonment of the girl by the young man. Later broadside and traditional folk versions celebrate a sexual encounter. A censored version published by Baring-Gould and Sharp substitutes a proposal of marriage for the encounter.

Lyrics

As I walked out on a May morning, on a May morning so early,
I overtook a pretty fair maid just as the day was a-dawning.
Chorus:
''With a rue-rum-ray, fol-the-diddle-ay,''
''Whack-fol-lare-diddle-I-doh.''
Her eyes were bright and her stockings white, and her buckling shone like silver,
She had a dark and a rolling eye, and her hair hung over her shoulder.
Where are you going, my pretty fair maid? Where are you going, my honey?
She answered me right cheerfully, I've an errand for my mummy.
How old are you, my pretty fair maid? How old are you, my honey?
She answered me right cheerfully, I'm seventeen come Sunday.
Will you take a man, my pretty fair maid? Will you take a man, my honey?
She answered me right cheerfully, I darst not for my mummy.
But if you come round to my mummy's house, when the moon shines bright and clearly,
I will come down and let you in, and my mummy shall not hear me.
So I went down to her mummy's house, when the moon shone bright and clearly,
She did come down and let me in, and I lay in her arms till morning.
So, now I have my soldier-man, and his ways they are quite winning.
The drum and fife are my delight, and a pint of rum in the morning. The influential version published by Cecil Sharp substitutes: O soldier, will you marry me ? For now's your time or never:
For if you do not marry me, My heart is broke for ever.
''With my rue dum day,'' etc, Other versions sung by traditional singers end differently. In Sarah Makem's rendering the unfortunate girl is first beaten by her mother: I went to the house on the top of the hill When the moon was shining dearly,
She arose to let me in, But her mother chanced to hear her.
She took her by the hair of her head, And down to the room she brought her,
And with the butt of a hazel twig She was the well beat daughter.
and then abandoned by her self-righteous lover: I can't marry you, my bonny wee lass, I can't marry you, my honey,
For I have got a wife at home And how can I disdain her?

Related songs

This song has been compared to a song usually called "The Overgate" or "With My Roving Eye". In both songs the narrator has a chance meeting with a pretty girl, leading to a sexual encounter. And the songs may have similar nonsense refrains. However the details of the texts are so different that the

Roud Folk Song Index The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of around 250,000 references to nearly 25,000 songs collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world. It is compiled by Steve Roud. Roud's Index is a combination of the Broadsid ...

classifies them separately. "The Overgate" is Roud Number 866. One well-known recording ends the account of the encounter with: :But I said, I've lost my waistcoat, my watch chain and my purse! :Says she, I've lost my maidenhead, and that's a darned sigh worse! :Chorus :''With my too-run-ra, lilt-fa-laddy'' :''Lilt-fa-laddy, too-run-ray''

Other recordings

Versions of the song have been recorded by: *1952: Paddy Doran (recorded by Peter Kennedy) *1956: A.L. Lloyd (''The Foggy Dew and Other Traditional English Love Songs'') *1962:

The Clancy Brothers The Clancy Brothers were an influential Irish folk music group that developed initially as a part of the American folk music revival. Most popular during the 1960s, they were famed for their Aran jumpers and are widely credited with popularisi ...

('' The Boys Won't Leave the Girls Alone'') *1971: The Woods Band (''The Woods Band'') *1974:

Planxty Planxty were an Irish folk music band formed in January 1972, consisting initially of Christy Moore (vocals, acoustic guitar, bodhrán), Andy Irvine (vocals, mandolin, mandola, bouzouki, hurdy-gurdy, harmonica), Dónal Lunny (bouzouki, gu ...

('' The Well Below the Valley'') *1976: The Bothy Band (''Old Hag You Have Killed Me'') *1977:

Steeleye Span Steeleye Span are a British folk rock band formed in 1969 in England by Fairport Convention bass player Ashley Hutchings and established London folk club duo Tim Hart and Maddy Prior. The band were part of the 1970s British folk revival, ...

(''

Storm Force Ten ''Storm Force Ten'' is the tenth studio album by British folk rock band Steeleye Span, released in 1977 by Chrysalis Records. Until their 2013 album ''Wintersmith'', released 36 years after ''Storm Force Ten'', this album was the band's last pr ...

'') *1982: Eric Schoenberg (''Steel Strings'') *1985: Boiled in Lead ('' BOiLeD iN lEaD'') *1988:

Joe Heaney Joe Heaney (AKA Joe Éinniú; Irish: Seosamh Ó hÉanaí) (1 October 1919 – 1 May 1984) was an Irish traditional ( sean nós) singer from Connemara, County Galway, Ireland. He spent most of his adult life abroad, living in England, Scotland an ...

('' The Voice of the People Vol 1'') *1988: Bob Hart ('' The Voice of the People Vol 10'') *1996: John Kirkpatrick (''Force of Habit'') *1997:

Kate Rusby Kate Anna Rusby (born 4 December 1973) is an English folk singer-songwriter from Penistone, West Riding of Yorkshire, England. Sometimes called the "Barnsley Nightingale", she has headlined various British folk festivals, and is one of the be ...

(''Hourglass'') *1998:

Fairport Convention Fairport Convention are an English British folk rock, folk rock band, formed in 1967 by guitarists Richard Thompson (musician), Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, bassist Ashley Hutchings and drummer Shaun Frater (with Frater replaced by Marti ...

(''The Cropredy Box'') *2002:

Waterson–Carthy Waterson:Carthy were an English folk group originally comprising Norma Waterson on vocals, her husband Martin Carthy on guitar and vocals and their daughter Eliza Carthy on fiddle and vocals. History The group had a repertoire of predominantly ...

(''A Dark Light'') *2007: Dalla (''

Rooz ''Rooz'' (, literally ''day'') was a Persian and English news website. It was mostly staffed by exiled Iranian journalists including Masoud Behnoud, Ebrahim Nabavi, Farah Karimi, and Nikahang Kowsar with occasional articles by activists and ...

'') *2010:

Loreena McKennitt Loreena McKennitt (born February 17, 1957) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and composer who writes, records, and performs world music with Celtic music, Celtic and Middle Eastern music, Middle Eastern influences. McKenni ...

(''

The Wind That Shakes the Barley "The Wind That Shakes the Barley" is an Irish ballad written by Robert Dwyer Joyce (1836–1883), a Limerick-born poet and professor of English literature. The song is written from the perspective of a doomed young Wexford rebel who is about to ...

'') *2011:

The High Kings The High Kings is an Folk music of Ireland, Irish folk group formed in Dublin in 2008. The band consists of Finbarr Clancy, Brian Dunphy, Darren Holden (musician), Darren Holden, and Paul O'Brien. As of 2023, the group had released five studio ...

(''Memory Lane'') *2012: Charlie Scamp ('' The Voice of the People : I'm a Romany Rai'') *2013: The Teacups (''One for the Pot'') *2017: Simply English (''Long Grey Beard and a Head That's Bald'') *2019: The Mary Wallopers (''A Mouthful of The Mary Wallopers'') *2024:

('' The Road Back Home'')

References

External links

Audio

Folk Song Recording
collected by

Video
taken by Charles Parker of singers Sam Larner and

Harry Cox Harry Fred Cox (27 March 1885 – 6 May 1971), was a Norfolk farmworker and one of the most important singers of traditional English music of the twentieth century, on account of his large repertoire and fine singing style. His music inspire ...

Recording
by the

United States Marine Band The United States Marine Band is the premier band of the United States Marine Corps. Established by act of Congress on July 11, 1798, it is the oldest of the United States military bands and the oldest professional musical organization in the ...