Shirley & Dolly Collins are a renowned English folk duo from Sussex consist… Read Full Bio ↴Shirley & Dolly Collins are a renowned English folk duo from Sussex consisting of sisters Shirley Collins and Dolly Collins. Their seminal recording is considered by many to be 'Anthems in Eden', released in 1969. It featured a suite of songs centred on the changes in rural England brought about by the First World War. Dolly Collins created arrangements featuring David Munrow and various other players from his Early Music Consort of London.

Later albums include Love, Death and the Lady (1970), Amaranth (1976), For as Many as Will (1978), Harking Back (1979), and Snapshots Fledg'ling (2006). A compedium album of their early work, The Harvest Years, was released in 2008.

Fare Thee Well My Dearest Dear
Shirley & Dolly Collins Lyrics

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Fare thee well my dearest dear, fare thee well, adieu

For I must go to sea for the sake of you

Love, bear a patient heart, for you must bear the smart

Since you and I must part, my turtle dove

You’ll have silver and bright gold, houses and land

What more can you desire? Love, don’t complain

And jewels to your hand, and maids at your command

But you must think on me when I am gone

Your gold shall count as dust when that you are fled

Your absence proves me lost and strikes me dead

And when you are from home, your servants I’ll have none

I’d rather live alone than in company

And so nimbly then she’s dressed, all in man’s attire

All for to go to sea was her heart’s desire

She cut her lovely hair, and no mistrust was there

That she a maiden were all at the time

So to Venice we were bound, with our hearts content

No thought of ship being wrecked, oh, away we went

From London but one day our ship was cast away

Which caused our lives to lay in discontent

For our ship was cast away, misfortune it did frown

For I did swim to shore but she was drowned

Now she lies in the deep in everlasting sleep

Which causes me to weep for evermore

Overall Meaning

The song "Fare Thee Well My Dearest Dear" by Shirley Collins is a farewell ballad to a lover who must leave for sea, and a cautionary tale about the true value of gold and material possessions. The opening stanzas reveal the deep love and bond between the two lovers, who are being forced apart because of the sailor's duty to go to sea. The lyrics express the pain of separation and the need for patience, asking the turtle dove to bear the smart of the loss. The second stanza speaks to the power of gold and material possessions, offering them to the lover left behind as a way to ease the loss and separation. However, the sailor comments that gold will count for nothing once the lover has left for good, and that absence will prove the sailor lost. The final stanza depicts the final irony of the story- despite the sailor's attempt to provide for the lover after his own death, his offers will prove to be meaningless as the ship sinks, and the sailor is left alone and grieving for the loss.

Overall, the song is a meditation on the power of love, and the true nature of wealth and possessions. While the sailor is offering what he can to ease the pain of the separation, he expresses his belief that his true value lies in his love for the turtle dove, and in the memories that they have shared. Ultimately, the song is one about the fragility of life and the uncertainty of fate, and the need to cherish what we have in the present moment.

Fare Thee Well My Dearest DearShirley & Dolly Collins Lyrics

Fare Thee Well My Dearest Dear
Shirley & Dolly Collins Lyrics