The narrator warns fellow virgins not to be too coy unless they also want to wander the world round looking for the lover who has given up on their courtship.
She tells the story of how she dresses like a man and travels over sea, land, desert, and forest to find her love.
She sings of his curly locks, his musical voice, and his smooth ability to woo her.
The rest of the ballad tells of all the places she will travel: throughout England, overseas, into jungles, deserts, forests.
At the end of the ballad, she reiterates her warning to other women, lest they also spend their lives wandering the world looking for lost love.