This work must be an oddity in not only the musical literature but

all literature—a man is telling a story about the one that got away.

It's an elegant and cheerful melody and text; clearly the rejection

was not terribly upsetting. He describes meeting a "little, pretty, bonny lass, "

whom he tried to pick up. But in the end, "I swore I would, yet

still she said I should not/Do what I would, and yet for all I could

not." The work is as much fun to perform as it is to listen to,

especially with the rapid tongue-twisting of "still she said I should

not, " with its delicately rushed tempo, that can be either an imitation

of the woman's refusal or an attempt to rush through the admission of

failure.

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