Pretty Polly

A murder ballad (Roud 15, Laws P36) in the Appalachian tradition, derived from the English broadside “The Gosport Tragedy” (or “The Cruel Ship’s Carpenter”) first printed around 1760. American versions strip away the original’s supernatural ending — the ghost, the haunted ship, the carpenter’s confession — and reduce the story to the courtship, the walk in the woods, the dug grave, and the killing. The tune is typically modal and is often played in cross-tuned or banjo-led arrangements. Ralph Stanley’s a cappella reading on the Stanley Brothers and later solo recordings became the standard bluegrass version, and the melody underlies Bob Dylan’s “Ballad of Hollis Brown.” Notable recordings include B.F. Shelton’s 1927 Victor recording and Dock Boggs’s 1927 Brunswick recording.