Mythology & Folklore

The Lowlands o’ Holland

by Anonymous (English and Scottish Ballads) traditional; texts recorded c. 15th–18th century

From The Oxford Book of Ballads (1910)

Mythology & Folklore

‘My love has built a bonny ship, and set her on the sea,
With seven score good mariners to bear her companỳ;
There’s three score is sunk, and three score dead at sea,
And the Lowlands o’ Holland has twin’d my love and me.

‘My love he built another ship, and set her on the main,
And nane but twenty mariners for to bring her hame;
But the weary wind began to rise, and the sea began to rout,
My love then and his bonny ship turn’d withershins about.

‘Then shall neither coif come on my head nor comb come in my hair;
Then shall neither coal nor candle-light shine in my bower mair;
Nor will I love another one until the day I die,
Sin’ the Lowlands o’ Holland has twin’d my love and me.’--

‘O haud your tongue, my daughter dear, be still and be content;
There are mair lads in Galloway, ye neen nae sair lament.’--
‘O there is none in Gallow, there’s none at a’ for me,
For I never loved a love but one, and he’s drown’d in the sea.’

MLA

Anonymous (English and Scottish Ballads). “The Lowlands o’ Holland.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-english-scottish-ballads/154/.

Chicago

Anonymous (English and Scottish Ballads). “The Lowlands o’ Holland.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-english-scottish-ballads/154/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

More by Anonymous (English and Scottish Ballads)