I first heard this sung with different words. It was called “Come Kiss Me, Love” and I learned it from the Ian Campbell Folk Group. I later learned the version I sing here from The Dubliners. I thought, as first, that it was a Scottish song, but later found out that it came from Canada.
The song always brings back fond memories of being snowed in at Margaret MacArthur’s with some of the finest folksingers around. We just kept singing this song until the harmonies lingered in the rafters.
Nick Apollonio & Bob Stuart – vocals
Addendum note from Jos. Morneault: (Also “Sweet Maggie Gordon” and “Sweet Peggy Gordon”) Firmly in the public domain despite claims to the contrary, this song appears in broadside prints during the 1820s and early 1830s; it was associated with Nova Scotia and believed to have originated there. It has been a favourite of balladeers throughout the years since and even referred to in Fitz-Hugh Ludlow’s story “The Primpenny Family”, a serial story in 1861 issues if Vanity Fair.
Oh, Peggy Gordon, you are my darling.
Come sit you down upon my knee.
Come tell to me the very reason,
Why I am slighted so by thee.
I’m so in love, I can’t deny it;
My heart lies smothered in my breast.
It’s not for you to let the world know;
A troubled mind sure can find no rest.
I put my head to a cask of brandy;
It was my fancy, I do declare.
For when I’m drinking, I am thinking,
And wishing Peggy Gordon was here.
I wish I was away in Ingo;
Far across the briny sea.
Sailing o’er the deepest ocean,
Where love nor care never bother me.
I wish I was in some lonesome valley
Where womankind cannot be found,
And the pretty small birds do change their voices,
And every moment a different sound.
Oh, Peggy Gordon, you are my darling.
Come sit you down upon my knee.
Come tell to me the very reason,
Why I am slighted so by thee.