“I Never Will Marry” is a traditional song of heartbreak with deep roots in the older English-language ballad tradition. Versions of it were collected in America in the early 1900s, and its lineage reaches back to British broadside ballads of a sailor’s sweetheart left behind. Like much traditional material, it has no single author.
The song reached records through the Carter Family, who recorded it in the late 1930s; A.P. Carter is credited on the recording, as he was on much of the traditional material the family reshaped for their repertoire. The lyric is a stark one: a young woman, abandoned by her love, declares she will never marry, and walks into the sea.
Carried forward by the Carter Family’s version, the song became a folk-revival and bluegrass favorite, its mournful melody and tragic story drawing many interpreters.
