Song Lyrics

I am a young man from the town of Kiandra
I married a young woman to comfort my home
She goes out and she leaves me and truly deceives me
She leaves me with a baby that's none o' me own

CHORUS:
Oh dear, I rue the day ever I married
How I wish I was single again
With this weeping and wailing and rocking the cradle
And rocking the baby that's none o' me own

While I'm at work, my wife's on the rantan
On the rantan with some other young man
She goes out and she leaves me and truly deceives me
And leaves me with a baby that's none o' me own

Now all you young men with a fancy to marry
Be sure you leave those flash gals alone
Or by the Lord Harry, if one you should marry
They'll leave you with a baby that's none o' your own

VersionTwo
On a bright summer's evening I chanced to go roving
Down by the clear river I rollicked along.
I heard an old man making sad lamentation;
He was rocking the cradle and the child not his own.

cho: Hi ho, hi ho, my laddie lie aisy
For perhaps your own daddy might never be known.
I'm sitting and sighing and rocking the cradle,
And nursin' the baby that's none of my own.

When first that I married your inconstant mother
I thought myself lucky to be blessed with a wife.
But for my misfortune, sure I was mistaken
She's proved both a curse and a plague on my life.

She goes out every night to a ball or a party
And leaves me here rockin' he cradle alone.
The innocent laddie he calls me his daddy
But little he knows that he's none of my own.


Now come all ye young men that's inclined to get married
Take my advice and let the women alone.
For by the Lord Harry, if ever you marry
They'll leave you with a baby that's none of your own.
(or "and swear it's your own".)

J Baird, Traditional, Pd Traditional

The duration of Rockin' the Cradle is 2:35 minutes and seconds.