The Bonny Irish Maid As I roved out one morning fair, it early as I strayed It being all in the month of May the birds sang in the shade The sun shone down right merrily and the water did swiftly glide Where primroses and daisies grow, down by Blackwaterside I had not gone but half a mile when there by chance I spied Two lovers talking as they walked down by Blackwaterside And as he embraced her in his arms, these words to her he said "When I'm in America I'll be true to my Bonny Irish Maid" "Oh when you are in America the Yankee girls you'll find And you'll have sweethearts of your own more pleasing to your mind But do not forget the promises and the vows to me you made Oh stay at home and do not roam from your bonny Irish maid" "Oh when I'm in America, the Yankee girls I'll see But they must be very pretty love, to remind me of thee For there's not a bird in yonder bush nor or flower in yon green glade But does remind me love of you, my bonny Irish maid" "It's many's the foolish youth" she said, "has gone to a distant shore Leaving behind his own true love, perhaps to meet no more It's in crossing of the Atlantic foam, sometimes their graves are made Oh stay at home and do not roam from your bonny Irish maid" And so these two young lovers so fondly did embrace Like honey drops upon the dew, the tears ran down her face Saying there's not a day while you're away but I'll visit still these glades Until you do return again to your bonny Irish maid. Recorded by, amongst others, the Battlefield Band who, like me, learned it from one Tony O'Halloran MR apr97
Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!