The Water Is Wide
E700508
"The Water Is Wide" is a traditional folk song, also known as "O Waly, Waly," that has been widely covered for its poignant melody and themes of love and loss.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| The Water Is Wide canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7902014 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Water Is Wide Context triple: [Voice of an Angel, hasTrack, The Water Is Wide]
-
A.
Down by the River
"Down by the River" is a long, guitar-driven rock song by Neil Young and Crazy Horse, noted for its extended jams and dark, ambiguous lyrics.
-
B.
From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah
From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah is a posthumously released live album by the American rock band Nirvana, compiling concert recordings from various performances between 1989 and 1994.
-
C.
Mama River
The Mama River is a significant tributary in eastern Siberia that flows through remote regions of Russia before joining the Vitim River.
-
D.
A River Ain’t Too Much to Love
A River Ain’t Too Much to Love is a critically acclaimed 2005 indie folk album by Bill Callahan’s project Smog, noted for its sparse arrangements and introspective, poetic songwriting.
-
E.
Crossing the Water
"Crossing the Water" is a posthumously published collection of poems by Sylvia Plath that showcases her stark, vivid imagery and evolving poetic voice in the years leading up to her death.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: The Water Is Wide Target entity description: "The Water Is Wide" is a traditional folk song, also known as "O Waly, Waly," that has been widely covered for its poignant melody and themes of love and loss.
-
A.
Down by the River
"Down by the River" is a long, guitar-driven rock song by Neil Young and Crazy Horse, noted for its extended jams and dark, ambiguous lyrics.
-
B.
From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah
From the Muddy Banks of the Wishkah is a posthumously released live album by the American rock band Nirvana, compiling concert recordings from various performances between 1989 and 1994.
-
C.
Mama River
The Mama River is a significant tributary in eastern Siberia that flows through remote regions of Russia before joining the Vitim River.
-
D.
A River Ain’t Too Much to Love
A River Ain’t Too Much to Love is a critically acclaimed 2005 indie folk album by Bill Callahan’s project Smog, noted for its sparse arrangements and introspective, poetic songwriting.
-
E.
Crossing the Water
"Crossing the Water" is a posthumously published collection of poems by Sylvia Plath that showcases her stark, vivid imagery and evolving poetic voice in the years leading up to her death.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (50)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
Scottish folk song
ⓘ
folk song ⓘ |
| associatedWithMovement | folk revival ⓘ |
| basedOn | earlier British Isles ballad material ⓘ |
| collectedInCentury |
17th century
ⓘ
18th century ⓘ |
| countryOfOrigin | Scotland ⓘ |
| genre |
folk
ⓘ
traditional folk ⓘ |
| hasAlternativeTitle |
O Waly, Waly
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Waly, Waly NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasCharacteristic |
lyrical, reflective mood
ⓘ
poignant melody ⓘ slow tempo ⓘ |
| hasForm | strophic song ⓘ |
| hasMeter | common time ⓘ |
| hasNotableRecordingBy |
Barbra Streisand
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
Bob Dylan NERFINISHED ⓘ Celtic Woman NERFINISHED ⓘ Charlotte Church NERFINISHED ⓘ Choir of King’s College, Cambridge NERFINISHED ⓘ Eva Cassidy NERFINISHED ⓘ Hayley Westenra NERFINISHED ⓘ James Taylor NERFINISHED ⓘ Joan Baez NERFINISHED ⓘ John Rutter (arrangement) NERFINISHED ⓘ Karine Polwart NERFINISHED ⓘ Pete Seeger NERFINISHED ⓘ Ralph Vaughan Williams (arrangement) NERFINISHED ⓘ Sarah Brightman NERFINISHED ⓘ The Kingston Trio NERFINISHED ⓘ The New Christy Minstrels NERFINISHED ⓘ The Seekers NERFINISHED ⓘ |
| hasVersion |
O Waly, Waly (Child Ballad–related text)
NERFINISHED
ⓘ
modern folk revival version ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| lyricMotif |
boat or ship
ⓘ
cannot cross over ⓘ love that fades ⓘ wide water ⓘ |
| popularizedInCentury | 20th century ⓘ |
| theme |
heartbreak
ⓘ
loss ⓘ love ⓘ passage of time ⓘ separation ⓘ unrequited love ⓘ |
| usedIn |
choral repertoire
ⓘ
hymn and church music arrangements ⓘ instrumental folk arrangements ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: The Water Is Wide Description of subject: "The Water Is Wide" is a traditional folk song, also known as "O Waly, Waly," that has been widely covered for its poignant melody and themes of love and loss.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.