Uploaded November 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
"Sweet Polly Oliver" is an English broadside ballad (Roud #367), traceable from 1840 or earlier. It is also known as "Pretty Polly Oliver" and has several variant sets of lyrics, set to a single anonymous melody. It is one of the best known of a number of folk songs describing women disguising themselves as men to join the army to be with their lovers.
Performed by Janice Rossen.
The image is of Nancy Whipple in a British army uniform of the late 18th century by Henry William Bunbury.
"Sweet Polly Oliver" is an English broadside ballad (Roud #367), traceable from 1840 or earlier. It is also known as "Pretty Polly Oliver" and has several variant sets of lyrics, set to a single anonymous melody. It is one of the best known of a number of folk songs describing women disguising themselves as men to join the army to be with their lovers.
Performed by Janice Rossen.
The image is of Nancy Whipple in a British army uniform of the late 18th century by Henry William Bunbury.
