#pretty polly

[archangelsixteen]

pretty polly.

2024

My love on stilts, I feel so much higher than the sea! For my heart, he keeps it close for me. In a box locked in the depths, I want to go with along with him.

I’ve spent days lying beside him, pleading for love that was easily receptive. I could scream out the name of whom I forfeit my time over to but I am not confident in the longevity. I feel uncertain. As if there is something within him. Eyes that look dead to me. My hands to his chest, his heartbeat has never expelled my fears. It simply ignites them. He blesses me with fruit from a rotting tree.

First bite of an apple. I cannot taste the knife to my chest, what I taste is the blood. Last bite, my teeth sink hard.

Is this in vain? It’s a much deeper wound than he’s afflicted. My heart is flowing, seeping into him. Is this to be ignored?

Dead weight, in the limbo of living I can feel when he drags me with no pity.

My grave is dug with desire in his chest, the best part of my life. With dirt in my eyes you refused to shut, you walk away from me. Though even in my absence, I will never be ignored.

[jwgh]

Song spotlight: Modern Murder Ballad (Pretty Polly)

I guess murder ballads don't necessarily feature in most people's upbringings, and maybe I should explain what they are. They're a type of folk song that started centuries ago in Europe and eventually made its way to the United States, becoming especially popular in Appalachia. They can take different forms, but are usually about a relationship between a man and a woman that, for one reason or another, results in murder, usually of the woman, but sometimes of the man, and occasionally of just some random other person. American murder ballads in particular tend toward the gruesome.

I was thinking about these songs, and it occurred to me that, while a lot of my songs feature bad behavior of one kind or another, the actual body count is surprisingly low. So this is an experiment in what would happen if I tried to write a present-day murder ballad. Not to spoil the ending or anything, but everyone makes it out alive, though there is arguably a certain amount of emotional damage. I'm specifically satirizing the traditional song Pretty Polly. (There are a million versions of it out there, but here's one by Hilarie Burhans that I like: https://youtu.be/xH7dv85LfAk .)

Coming up with a name for this one was hard. I fiddled around with a few ideas before deciding on the most on-the-nose name I could think of, on the theory that, if the title can't be clever, at least it can be accurate...

I'm not totally sure what the target demographic is for bloodless parodies of 1800s murder ballads, but I'm hoping someone out there will enjoy it!

I want the song to be stark and driving and intense, so I went with an electric guitar on this one, and I've asked Ilana Katz Katz to come in and add some driving fiddle to the mix. I can't wait to hear what she does with it!

This will be one of the songs that will be featured on my new album, 'Totally Awkward'. To help fund it, go to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jwghaller/totally-awkward-my-next-album , where you can pledge to get an early copy of the album (in digital or physical form) as well as other rewards and add-ons! The campaign ends soon, on Wednesday June 26.

[kitsunetsuki]

Eve Arnold - Pretty Polly Tights Ad (Photographis '74)

[sampungmgadaliri]

Not to be that person... but I am going to be that person. My OTP from Old Gods of Appalachia is Miss Belle x Pretty Polly Barrow. If there is someone who change Pretty Polly, it's going to be Miss Belle.

[redwryvernwrites]

Pretty Polly and an A4 being Scandalous. Smokebox door open in public, really?

I can't really read which number it is but it looks like the last number is 7, which makes this either; Silver Fox (60017), Merlin (60027) or Sir Nigel Gresley (60007).

I suspect it's Gresley since 60007 has a strange habit of being photographed with his Smokebox open, even now.

[swampsiren-piratefairy]

Note: this is just one version of the song. There are many (Wikipedia)

Lyrics below the cut

Oh polly, dear polly, come, go along with me

Polly, pretty polly, come, go along with me

Before we get married some pleasures to see

Willie, oh willie, I'm afraid of your ways

Willie, oh willie, I'm afraid of your way

I'm afraid you will lead my poor body astray

Oh polly, dear polly, you're guessing 'bout right

Polly, dear polly, you're guessing just about right

I dug on your grave the best part of the night

He went a few steps further and what did she spot?

Went a few steps further and what did she spy?

But a new dug grave and a sway lying by

He stabbed her in her heart and her heart's blood did flow

He stabbed her in her heart and her heart's blood did flow

And into the grave pretty polly did go

Oh, gentlemen and ladies, I bid you farewell

Gentlemen and ladies, I bid you farewell

For killing pretty polly my soul will go to hell

It's a debt to the devil poor willie must pay

It's a debt to the devil poor willie must pay

For killing pretty polly and running away

[dahliaduvide]

AKA: The Cruel Ship's Carpenter Origin: England, 1750s Descendent: Pretty Polly

The Real Story...

Location: Portsmouth, England Date: ~January 26-February 26, 1726 Victim: Unknown, called Molly and later Polly Murderer: An unnamed ship carpenter's mate on the HMS Bedford Motive: Unwanted Pregnancy

[azulso]

Kay Challis alters by

[insidecroydon]

Victorians' favourite artist for capturing lines of Classic winners

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: From his home on Warrington Road, George Paice became one of the leading Victorian and Edwardian-era artists, specialising in painting the gentry’s pets and racehorses. DAVID MORGAN traces his career, beginning from a WWI memorial in Croydon Minster Hound portraits: George Paice was a popular choice of artist to capture favourite animals, such as ‘Deemster’ There have been many…

[hippography]

Pretty Polly. 

The property of Major Eustace Loder. By Gallinule out of Admiration, by Saraband. Winner of the One Thousand Guineas, Oaks and St. Leger, 1904. 

W. A. Rouch. 

Sir Humphrey de Trafford, 1907, The Horses of the British Empire, Vol. 1.

[chrisgoesrock]

The Kinks - Pretty Polly/Wonder Boy - PYE Germany Picture Sleeve 1968

[lizards-can-be-bookmarks]

Spoilers for the pretty polly arc!!!

I can't help but picture polly being sent to her room after she was poofed away by dear old dad, and her sitting on a twin sized bed in a child's room pouting and telling a stuffed animal that her daddy is dumb and unfair, I can't stop picturing it.

[kitsunetsuki]

Pretty Polly Tights Ad (Over 21 1973)

[dahliaduvide]

AKA: Purty Polly, The Death of Polly, Polly's Love Ancestor: The Gosport Tragedy Origin: American, 1925 Recording Artist: John Hammond

[azulso]

 "Are you f*ucking serious? Which one of you... b*tches? Ok, ok fine, I get it. What I was doing was a little weird, maybe was wrong and dangerous... it is really f*cking bad? I, f*ck. No. Sh*t. I know things are f*cked up for us. And you guys are right, maybe I shouldn't be... But that doesn't give you the right... to pull me down here out the f*cking nowhere, without warning... and just...".- Crazy Jane (Diane Guerrero)

"What are you talking about? No one pull you down here.".- Pretty Polly (Hannah Alline)

"Sorry, what?".- Crazy Jane

"Yeeeah, you just showed up from your own. Wait, what where you doing exactly?".- Driller Bill (Shay Mack)

"Nothing, yeah nothing.".- Crazy Jane

*Put up her pants*

"Yeah, just, forget it. Ok. I'll see you guys... later.".- Crazy Jane