I Will Give my Love an Apple

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 e'er a 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 e'er a key.

A version of the song was collected at Sherborne, Dorset, by H. E. D. Hammond in 1906; another version was printed in Journal of the Folk-Song Society, vol. 3, no. 11, 1907, p114.