{"id":424,"date":"2013-07-10T07:47:14","date_gmt":"2013-07-10T11:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/?page_id=424"},"modified":"2025-07-29T07:01:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T11:01:00","slug":"i-wish-i-was-single-again","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/thejovialcrew.com\/?page_id=424","title":{"rendered":"I Wish I Was Single Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wish I was Single Again is an excellent example of lyrical poetry – a poem set to music or designed to be – and in this case the limerick<\/a>; arguably “the oldest form of poetry in the western world still in common use today”*.\u00a0 The “setting” is AABBA: first and second line of equal meter and rhyme, followed by two shorter lines of equal meter and rhyme, and the last following the same meter as the first two and sharing their rhyme or similar enough.\u00a0 It is a very versatile method of quick meter and popular for centuries, much like how the haiku has become to western culture in recent years.\u00a0 The tune is the same as “Coming ‘Round The Mountain<\/a>“, but sung more like a waltz, not so fast.<\/p>\n

The story of the song is evident enough and illustrates the common complaint of someone badly married; it could, in fact, be the voice of either gender.\u00a0 The humour is wry and perhaps not meant for anyone determined that song expression should reflect their own morals.\u00a0 The picture below is an image of the old tradition in the British Isles of “wife selling<\/a>” and is best explained by the link provided.\u00a0 This is meant to help describe the grousing of the narrator in the story of the song, although clearly it is not wife-selling that parts him from his wife herein.\u00a0 All that said, let it not be regarded that we endorse the mindset of separating from one’s spouse by auctioning her\/him off… Just observing the historical fact and the humour intended within the song.<\/p>\n

In his 2025 book, “A Yorkshire Songster”**, Steve Gardham offers up some more historical data: “This old song was first printed in The Westminster Drollery<\/span> of 1672…<\/em> (in this earliest version) it ends not with her falling ill and dying,<\/em> (instead) he cuts her throat and is hanged at Tyburn. By the late-eighteenth century… all versions were comic with his wife falling ill, dying, and his remarrying a worse one and wishing he had his old wife back. This is pretty much as in modern versions, except that he opens his first wife’s coffin to find her laughing at him<\/em>.”<\/p>\n

* So my English teacher said back in high school days… Bicker amongst yourselves.<\/p>\n

** Francis Boutle Publishers, London, UK<\/p>\n

Jos. Morneault<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\""Selling<\/a>

“Selling a Wife” by Thomas Rowlandson, 1812-14. Repost from The Georgian Bawdyhouse<\/a>.<\/p><\/div>\n

Chorus:<\/p>\n

I wish I was single again.<\/em><\/strong>
\n I wish I was single again.<\/em><\/strong>
\n For when I was single,<\/em><\/strong>
\n My pockets would jingle,<\/em><\/strong>
\n I wish I was single again.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I married a wife, Oh then.
\nI married a wife, Oh then,
\nI married a wife,
\nShe’s the plague of my LIfe,
\nAnd I wished I was single again.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Chorus<\/strong><\/p>\n

My wife caught\u00a0a fever, O then
\nMy wife caught\u00a0a fever, O then
\nMy wife caught\u00a0a fever
\nI hope it won\u2019t leave her
\nI wish I was single again\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Chorus<\/strong><\/p>\n

My wife she died, Oh then.
\nMy wife she died, Oh then,
\nMy wife she died,
\nI laughed\u00a0’till I cried,
\nTo think I was single again.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0Chorus<\/strong><\/p>\n

I went to her wake, oh then.
\nI went to her wake, oh then.
\nI went to her wake,
\nBut not for her sake,
\nBut to view the fair maidens again.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Chorus<\/strong><\/p>\n

I went to her funeral, O then
\nI went to her funeral, O then
\nThe band it did play
\nI danced all the way
\nTo think I was single again\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Chorus<\/strong><\/p>\n

I married another, Oh then, Oh then,
\nI married another, Oh then,
\nI married another,
\nShe\u2019s worse than the other,
\nAnd I wished I was single again!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Chorus<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n