"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 c ...

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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 (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...

277,

Laws Law is a set of rules that are created and are law enforcement, enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. ...

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 lived in the United States from 1914 and became an American citizen in 1918. In the course of a long an ...

for choir and brass accompaniment in 1912 and used in the first movement of Ralph Vaughan Williams' ''

English Folk Song Suite ''English Folk Song Suite'' is one of English composer Ralph Vaughan Williams' most famous works. It was first published for the military band as ''Folk Song Suite'' and its premiere was given at Kneller Hall on 4 July 1923, conducted by Lt Hec ...

'' 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 ...
and
Cecil Sharp Cecil James Sharp (22 November 1859 – 23 June 1924) was an English-born collector of folk songs, folk dances and instrumental music, as well as a lecturer, teacher, composer and musician. He was the pre-eminent activist in the development of t ...
, 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 Sarah Makem (18 October 1900 – 20 April 1983) a native of Keady, County Armagh, Northern Ireland, was a traditional Irish singer. She was the wife of fiddler Peter Makem, mother of musicians Tommy Makem and Jack Makem, and grandmother of ...

'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 (born 1949), a former librarian in the London ...

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''

Belle Stewart Belle Stewart, born Isobella McGregor, (18 July 1906 – 4 September 1997) was a Scottish Traveller traditional singer. Her biography, ''Queen Amang the Heather: the Life of Belle Stewart'', was written by her daughter, Sheila Stewart, and publis ...

"The Overgate" recorded 1976. Issued on

The Voice of the People ''The Voice of the People'' is an anthology of folk songs produced by Topic Records containing recordings of traditional singers and musicians from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. The series was first issued in 1998 as 20 CDs, compiled by Dr ...

Volume 20 "There is a man upon the farm" (1988).

Other Recordings

Versions of the song have been recorded by: *1956:

A.L. Lloyd Albert Lancaster Lloyd (29 February 1908 – 29 September 1982),Eder, Bruce. (29 September 1982A. L. Lloyd - Music Biography, Credits and Discography AllMusic. Retrieved on 2013-02-24. usually known as A. L. Lloyd or Bert Lloyd, was an English fo ...

(''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 jumper sweaters and are widely credited with popu ...

(''

The Boys Won't Leave the Girls Alone ''The Boys Won't Leave the Girls Alone'' is a collection of mostly traditional Irish folk songs performed by The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem. It also includes several songs from other countries, such as the Scottish folk song, "Marie's Weddin ...

'') *1971:

The Woods Band The Woods Band was an Irish folk-rock band formed in 1970 by husband and wife team Gay & Terry Woods, shortly after their departure from Steeleye Span. The band played and recorded for four years before evolving into Gay & Terry Woods. In ...

(''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, guitars ...

(''

The Well Below the Valley "The Maid and the Palmer" (alternate versions are known as "The Maid of Coldingham" and "The Well Below The Valley"; original title in Percy "Lillumwham") (Roud 2335, Child ballad 21) is an English language medieval murder ballad with supernatural ...

'') *1976:

The Bothy Band The Bothy Band were an Irish traditional band active during the mid 1970s. They quickly gained a reputation as one of the most influential bands playing Irish traditional music. Their enthusiasm and musical virtuosity had a significant influen ...

(''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, and we ...

('' Storm Force Ten'') *1982:

Eric Schoenberg Eric Schoenberg is an American guitarist known for his fingerstyle guitar playing, as well as a recording artist and designer of acoustic guitars. He owns Eric Schoenberg Guitars, a guitar store in Tiburon, California, which sells vintage and lut ...

(''Steel Strings'') *1985:

Boiled in Lead Boiled in Lead is a rock/world-music band based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and founded in 1983. Tim Walters of ''MusicHound Folk'' called the group "the most important folk-rock band to appear since the 1970s." Influential record producer and mu ...

(''

BOiLeD iN lEaD Boiled in Lead is a rock/world-music band based in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and founded in 1983. Tim Walters of ''MusicHound Folk'' called the group "the most important folk-rock band to appear since the 1970s." Influential record producer and mu ...

'') *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 County Galway, Ireland. He spent most of his adult life abroad, living in England, Scotland and New York ...

(''

Vol 1'') *1988: Bob Hart (''

Vol 10'') *1996: John Kirkpatrick (''Force of Habit'') *1997:

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

(''Hourglass'') *1998:

Fairport Convention Fairport Convention are an English folk rock band, formed in 1967 by guitarists Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol, bassist Ashley Hutchings and drummer Shaun Frater (with Frater replaced by Martin Lamble after their first gig.) They started o ...

(''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. They have a repertoire of predominantly British trad ...

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

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

'') *2010:

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

('' The Wind That Shakes the Barley'') *2011:

The High Kings The High Kings is an Irish folk group formed in Dublin in 2008. The band consists of Finbarr Clancy, Brian Dunphy, Darren Holden, and Paul O'Brien. As of 2020, the group had released five studio albums, four live albums, and two live DVDs, an ...

(''Memory Lane'') *2012: Charlie Scamp (''

: I'm a Romany Rai'') *2019: The Mary Wallopers (''A Mouthful of The Mary Wallopers'')

References

External links

Audio

Folk Song Recording
collected by

Video
taken by Charles Parker of singers

Sam Larner Samuel James Larner (18 October 1878 – 11 September 1965) was an English fisherman and traditional singer from Winterton-on-Sea, a fishing village in Norfolk, England. His life was the basis for Ewan MacColl's song ''The Shoals of Herring'', an ...

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 inspired ...

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 ...