I cannot get o'er

I've only just heard this song in the past few weeks, but it was making itself known just as the world was slamming down in the first wave of the pandemic. 

Down in the valley, the first of May

Gatherin' flowers, both fresh and gay 

Gatherin' flowers, both red and blue 

How little thought of what, what love could do 

Don't you break my heart 

I put my hand in, into the bush 

Finding the sweetest, sweetest rose 

I pricked my finger deep to the line 

And left the sweetest rose, sweetest rose behind 

Saw a ship sailin' on the big blue sea 

She sailed as deep as, deep as she could be 

But not so deep in, in love as I am 

I cannot whether I, I sink or swim 

Don't you break my heart 

Thousands and thousands all on this Earth

Pretty well all good art is achieved by stealing. The third verse definitely is; it's from the old Scottish ballad "Waly Waly", which is so beautiful that it turns up everywhere. 

I first heard it when I was housesitting for a couple who had ended up in Victoria to escape the draft during the Vietnam War, and decided to stay. Their house was a Sixties experience: a water bed, which I can't recommend, and pot plants in the garage which I innocently watered, until Double Leo Sister enlightened me. I continued to water them. They also had a huge vinyl record collection, which included a concert album by Peter, Paul, and Mary and this song.  As with my ignorance of pot plants, I didn't know this song is known as "Waly Waly".

Here's one of the many incarnations of The King Singers performing it in 1987:

The water is wide. Time to go wait for the ship that will carry me through to morning.