It being in the month of May when the birds were young and gay,
I took a stroll down by the corn in the morning.
It was there I spied a maid and she sitting in a shade,
And I asked her if I’d wind her ball of yarn.

“Oh no, kind sir,” she said, “You’re a stranger unto me,
And perhaps you might have any other darling.”
“Oh no, my lovely miss, take a warning unto this;
Keep your hand on your little ball of yarn.”

In the middle of the green where I knew I wouldn’t be seen;
I didn’t intend to do her any harm;
I put my hands around her waist then I gently laid her down
And began to wind her little ball of yarn.

Nine months came to pass, sure, I met this lovely lass;
She was carrying little triplets in her arms.
Says I, “My lovely miss, take a warning unto this,
Keep your hand upon your little ball of yarn."

"Gershon Legman claimed this as a distant relative of the song ‘The Yellow, Yellow Yorlin’’ (Yellowhammer) which is to be found in Burns’ ‘Merry Muses of Caledonia’ (1800), while sea-song expert Stan Hugill had it as a pumping shanty and suggested that balls of yarn were more likely to be associated with the sea than the land.
Legman also linked it to a custom in The Ozarks where a young woman who wished to find who she was to marry threw a ball of red yarn into a ‘haunted’ house, keeping hold of one end. She called out “Who’ll wind my ball of yarn”, and a ghostly voice from within is said to have come up with the answer.
Ref: ‘Roll Me in Your Arms’, Vance Randolph, ed. Gershon Legman, Univ. of Arkansas Press, 1992
Other recordings: Walter Pardon; ‘Put a Bit of Powder on it Father’; Musical Traditions MTCD305-6"

The above commentary, lyrics and recording are taken from ‘Around the Hills of Clare: Songs and Recitations from the Jim Carroll and Pat Mackenzie Collection’ (2004) Musical Traditions Records MTCD331-2/Góilín Records 005-6.