I wish I had someone to love me,
Someone to call me his own,
Someone to sleep with me nightly,
I weary of sleeping alone.
Meet me tonight in the moonlight,
Meet me tonight all alone,
I have a sad story to tell you
I'm telling it under the moon.
Tonight is our last night together,
Nearest and dearest must part,
The love that has bound us together
Is shredded and torn apart.
I wish I had ships on the ocean
Lined with silver and gold
Follow the ship that he sails in
A lad of 19 years-old.
I wish I had wings of a swallow,
Fly out over the sea
Fly to the arms of my true love
And bring him home safely to me.
Apparently before this song went through the folk process, it was
one of Vernon Dahlhart's country hits of the late 30's. It went
under the title of "The Prisoner's Song" and a snatch of it
is used at the end of the Bogart movie, Deadend. Sally Rogers
learned this version from Lisa Null, who heard Irish singer
Joe Heaney perform it.