Lyrics

[Verse] As she was walking, a girl alone All through the flowery wood She heard the sound of a bridle reins; And hoped that it might be for good "Come down, come down, you fine young man You're welcome home to me To my soft bed and the charcoal red And the candles burning free." "Oh I can't come down and I won't come down Nor I come into your arms at all For a finer girl than ten of you I'm meeting below the town wall." She says, "a finer girl than ten of me I wonder now who that may be? For I'm sure no finer girl than me Your eyes did ever see." Well he leaned himself across his saddle bow For a kiss before they'd part And with her knife, so long and keen She stabbed him through the heart Saying, "Lie there, lie there, you false young man Til' the flesh seep from off your bones And that finer girl than ten of me Can weary a-waiting alone." And as she walked alone, the high highway She saw a bird up on the tree Says, "Oh how could you kill that fine young man As he was a-kissing of thee?" "Come down, come down, you pretty little bird And eat the bread from out of me hand And your cage be of the wiry gold Instead of the weight alone" "I won't come down and I can't come down Nor come close to your knee For as you'd done to that fine young man I'm sure you would do to me." She says, "Oh, if I had my bended bow My arrow at my knee I'd loose a dart that would pierce your heart As you sit chatterin' on that tree." "Ah, but you've not got your bow, lady Nor your arrow by your knee So I'll fly away to that young man's home And tell what I did see." And as she crossed her house threshold This girl gave a pitiful moan And she has walled that young man up Behind a marble-stone And she had kept that young man man For full three-quarter of a year Till the heavy smell of death did spread And she began to fear And she called unto her Irish maid And the girl's hair stood to hear her say: "There is a young man in my room And it's time he was away." So the one she took him by the shoulders And the other one by the feet And they've plunged him in the river clear That runs about fifteen foot deep "Oh, look away," says the Irish maid "Oh, look away into the South!" You little thought to see that blue corpse When you've two tongues in your mouth Then up and speaks that pretty little bird A-seated on his tree "I'll have you dive, you dive us all For here he does lie indeed." "But I'll have you quit your day diving And dive all through the night For under the water where that young man lies The candles they burn so bright." So the divers quit their day diving And they dived all through the night And under the water where that young man lay They saw them candles burning bright And two men went into the wood To cut both briar and thorn And they have built a great bonfire This proud girl for to burn And the fire took fast upon her cheek And the fire took fast upon her chin And it sung in the points of her yellow hair She burned like the holly green