Come All Ye Fair And Tender Maidens [Little Sparrow]

Lyrics: Traditional/Dolly Parton
Music: Traditional/Dolly Parton

Played by Jerry Garcia with the Wildwood Boys in February 1963, and in the newer version by Dolly Parton, by Warren Haynes and Teresa Williams with Phil Lesh & Friends.

Come all you fair and tender maidens
Take warning how you court your man
They're like a fog on a Summer's morning
First appear and then they're gone

I wished I was a little sparrow
And I had wings to fly so high
I'd fly to the arms of my false true lover
And when he'd ask, I would deny

Come all you fair and tender maidens
Take warning how you court your man
They're like a fog on a Summer's morning
First appear and then they're gone

They tell to you such lovely stories
They'll make you think that they love you well
And then they are gone to court another
And leave you there in grief to dwell

Come all you fair and tender maidens
Take warning how you court your man
They're like a fog on a Summer's morning
First appear and then they're gone
First appear and then they're gone

Little sparrow, little sparrow
Precious fragile little thing
Little sparrow, little sparrow
Flies so high and feels no pain

All ye maidens hede my warning
Never trust the hearts of men
They will crush you like a sparrow
Leaving you to never mend

They will vow to always love you
Swear no love but yours will do
Then they'll leave you for another
Break your little heart in two

Little sparrow, little sparrow
Precious fragile little thing
Little sparrow, little sparrow
Flies so high and feels no pain

If I were a little sparrow
O'er these mountains I would fly
I would find him, I would find him
Look into his lying eyes

I would flutter all around him
On my little sparrow wings
I would ask him, I would ask him
Why he let me love in vain

I am not a little sparrow
I am just the broken dream
Of a cold false-hearted lover
And his evil cunning scheme

Little sparrow, little sparrow
Precious fragile little thing
Little sparrow, little sparrow
Flies so high and feels no pain

All ye maidens fair and tender
Never trust the hearts of men
They will crush you like a sparrow
Leaving you to never mend

Little sparrow, little sparrow
Oh the sorrow never ends