John Barleycorn

Martin Carthy's youtube version

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There was three men came out of the west,

Their fortunes for to try,

And these three men made a solemn vow,

John Barleycorn should die.

They ploughed, they sowed, they harrowed him in,

Throwed clods upon his head,

And these three man made a solemn vow,

John Barleycorn was dead.

Then they let him lie for a very long time

Till the rain from heaven did fall,

Then little Sir John sprung up his head,

And soon amazed them all.

They let him stand till midsummer

Till he looked both pale and wan,

And little Sir John he growed a long, long beard

And so became a man.

They hired men with the scythes so sharp

To cut him off at the knee,

They rolled him and tied him by the waist,

And served him most barbarously.

They hired men with the sharp pitchforks

Who pricked him to the heart,

And the loader he served him worse than that,

For he bound him to the cart.

They wheeled him round and round the field

Till they came unto a barn,

And there they made a solemn mow of poor John Barleycorn.

They hired men with the crab-tree sticks

To cut him skin from bone,

And the miller he served him worse than that,

For he ground him between two stones.

Here’s little Sir John in a nut-brown bowl,

And brandy in a glass;

And little Sir John in the nut-brown bowl

Proved the stronger man at last.

And the huntsman he can’t hunt the fox,

Nor so loudly blow his horn,

And the tinker he can’t mend kettles nor pots

Without a little of Barleycorn.