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Poor Jenny is a-weeping,
A-weeping, a-weeping,
Poor Jenny is a-weeping
On a bright summer's day.

Why are you weeping,
Weeping, weeping,
Why are you weeping
On a bright summer's day?

I'm weeping for a loved one,
A loved one, a loved one,
I'm weeping for a loved one
On a bright summer's day.

Stand up and choose your loved one,
Your loved one, your loved one,
Stand up and choose your loved one
On a bright summer's day.

Shake hands before you leave her,
You leave 'er, you leave 'er
Shake hands before you leave 'er
On a bright summer's day

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Source: The Singing Game, Peter and Iona Opie, ISBN 0-19-284019-3

Notes:
Collected by Peter and Iona Opie in Stepney in 1976, although versions are widespread.
Quoting from the Opie's book:

Although 'Poor Jenny' or 'Poor Mary' had been one of the most consistently popular of singing games during the great period of folk song-collection (in 1898 Alice Gomme knew nineteen versions and today we have above a hundred), our knowledge of the game goes back no earlier than c 1880. It is thus not possible to determine whether Jenny is weeping for a particular sweetheart or for lack of any sweetheart, or whether, even, she was not weeping for a brother or a sister - seemingly lost at sea; or because her father was 'dead and gone'; or because she had no playmate. And mystery surrounds the game Edward Thomas saw played by five little girls 'on a green in front of their cottages', at the end of which Mary stood and crossed hands with her true love, while the others sang:

Your true love is a shepherd's cross,
A shepherd's cross,a shepherd's cross,
Your true love is a shepherd's cross,
By the bright shining star



Roud: 2118 (Search Roud index at VWML) Take Six
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