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•  MP3 Recording of Bobby Shafto's Gone to Sea

•  MIDI TUNE of Bobby Shafto's Gone to Sea

 

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Sheet Music for
Bobby Shafto's Gone to Sea

Notes

Here's a slightly different version from The Real Mother Goose (1916):

Bobby Shaftoe's gone to sea,
With silver buckles on his knee:
He'll come back and marry me,
Pretty Bobby Shaftoe!
Bobby Shaftoe's fat and fair,
Combing down his yellow hair;
He's my love for evermore,
Pretty Bobby Shaftoe.

The version below is from The Little Mother Goose (1912), illustrated by Jessie Willcox Smith. There are only minor differences from the version just above:

Bobby Shaftoe's gone to sea,
Silver buckles on his knee;
He'll come back and marry me,
Pretty Bobby Shaftoe.

Bobby Shaftoe's fat and fair,
Combing down his yellow hair;
He's my love for evermore;
Pretty Bobby Shaftoe.

Thanks and Acknowledgements

This rhyme can be found in Children's Literature, A Textbook of Sources for Teachers and Teacher-Training Classes (1920) by Charles Madison Curry and Erle Elsworth Clippinger.

Many thanks to Monique Palomares for creating the midi tune.

The illustration comes from The Real Mother Goose (1916), illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright.

Sung by Ruth Golding for Librivox.