My love’s on the ocean
He can sink or he can swim
He don’t care for me
An’ I’m sure I don’t for him
There’s plenty more without him
As nice young men as he
An’ I can find another
Since he’s gone back on me

If he’s gone, let him go
Let him sink or let him swim
If he don’t care for me
Then I don’t care for him

And away with cold winter
Adieu to cold frost
I’ll laugh and be happy
As the dear lad I lost
I’ll sing and be merry
As the whistling bird in June
For I can catch another
Before tomorrow noon

If he’s gone, let him go
Let him sink or let him swim
If he don’t care for me
Then I don’t care for him

The last time I saw him
T’was in the shady grove
He tipped his hat so gently
An’ offered me a rose
He thought that I’d accept it
But he could plainly see
I had grown cold
Since he went back on me

If he’s gone, let him go
Let him sink or let him swim
If he don’t care for me
Then I don’t care for him

But men they are deceiving
They think they know it all
They think we girls are stuck on them
Think we look at them at all
But they are quite mistaken
As you can plainly see
They don’t know the meaning
Of the world left

If he’s gone, let him go
Let him sink or let him swim
If he don’t care for me
Then I don’t care for him

His love was like a dew drop,
That falls upon the ground
It came on Sunday evening
And left on Monday morn
His love was in his pocket
His love was in his heart
To me he gave a little
To the other girls part

If he’s gone, let him go
Let him sink or let him swim
If he don’t care for me
Then I don’t care for him

If he’s gone, let him go
Let him sink or let him swim
If he don’t care for me
Then I don’t care for him