I will give my love an apple without e'er a core,
I will give my love a house without e'er a door,
I will give my love a palace wherein she may be,
And she may unlock it without any key.

My head is the apple without e'er a core,
My mind is the house without e'er a door.
My heart is the palace wherein she may be,
And she may unlock it without any key.

abc | midi | pdf

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Source: Sharp C and Vaughan Williams, R, A Selection of Collected Folk-Songs, Novello

Notes:
This set was noted by H.E.D. Hammond from Mr J. Burrows at Sherborne Gravel Pits, Dorset, in July 1906. There were four verses, the second two of which are omitted in the Novello book; these are quoted as originally noted in James Reeves, The Everlasting Circle, 1960 161, and in Joan Brocklebank and Biddie Kindersley, A Dorset Book of Folk Songs, 1948 12:

I will give my love a cherry without e'er a stone,
I will give my love a chick without e'er a bone,
I will give my love a ring, not a rent to be seen,
I will get my love children without any crying.

When the cherry's in blossom there's never no stone,
When the chick's in the womb there's never no bone,
And when they're rinning running not a rent to be seen,
And when they're child-making they're seldom crying.


Roud: 330 (Search Roud index at VWML) Take Six
Laws:
Child: