I'm sure I recently read a thread about first lines of songs, but I can't find it right now, or I would post this there (if I found it and decided this post suited the thread).
Anyway, I've been cleaning out the "office" and music room, because it's small and there's a LOT of stuff in there. I'm trying to thin down the number of music and song books. Not doing too well on that task, plus I keep getting sidetracked. For instance...I just found a songbook called One Hundred English Folksongs and started paging through it. I started noticing the first lines. An astonishing number begin with some variation of "As I was a-walking" or "As I walked out one morning [or one May morning]". One started "As he" and one started "Bold Arder went forth one summer morning". And one was "Abroad as I was walking". But most started "As I".
Not far behind were the songs starting "Come all" (young men or maids or ye sailors, etc).
Okay, break over...back to sorting and--possibly--discarding.
Vicki