PRETTY LITTLE POLLY PERKINS
Written & Performed by Harry Clifton - 1865
I am a broken-hearted milkman, in grief I'm arrayed
Through keeping of the company of a young servant maid
Who lived on board and wages, the house to keep clean
In a gentleman's family near Paddington Green
She was as beautiful as a butterfly and proud as a Queen
Was pretty little Polly Perkins of Paddington Green
She'd an ankle like an antelope and a step like a deer
A voice like a blackbird, so mellow and clear
Her hair hung in ringlets so beautiful and long
I thought that she loved me but I found I was wrong
She was as beautiful as a butterfly and proud as a Queen
Was pretty little Polly Perkins of Paddington Green
When I'd rattle in the morning and cry "Milk below"
At the sound of my milk cans her face she did show
With a smile upon her countenance and a laugh in her eye
If I'd thought that she loved me I'd have laid down to die
She was as beautiful as a butterfly and proud as a Queen
Was pretty little Polly Perkins of Paddington Green
When I asked her to marry me, she said "Oh what stuff"
And told me to drop it, for she'd had quite enough
Of my nonsense... At the same time, I'd been very kind
But to marry a milkman she didn't feel inclined
She was as beautiful as a butterfly and proud as a Queen
Was pretty little Polly Perkins of Paddington Green
"The man that has me must have silver and gold
A chariot to ride in and be handsome and bold
His hair must be curly as any watch-spring,
And his whiskers as big as a brush for clothing"
She was as beautiful as a butterfly and proud as a Queen
Was pretty little Polly Perkins of Paddington Green
The words that she uttered went straight through my heart
I sobbed and I sighed, and I straight did depart
With a tear on my eyelid as big as a bean
I bid farewell to Polly and to Paddington Green
She was as beautiful as a butterfly and proud as a Queen
Was pretty little Polly Perkins of Paddington Green
In six months she married, this hard-hearted girl
But it was not a Wi-count, and it was not a Nearl
It was not a Baronite, but a shade or two wuss
It was a bow-legged conductor of a tuppenny bus
She was as beautiful as a butterfly and proud as a Queen
Was pretty little Polly Perkins of Paddington Green
