Читать книгу Songs of the West - S. (Sabine) Baring-Gould - Страница 7

Table of Contents

C.J.S.

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1

All the trees they are so high,

The leaves they are so green,

The day is past and gone, sweet-heart,

That you and I have seen.

It is cold winter's night,

You and I must bide alone:

Whilst my pretty lad is young

And is growing.

2

In a garden as I walked,

I heard them laugh and call;

There were four and twenty playing there,

They played with bat and ball.

O the rain on the roof,

Here and I must make my moan:

Whilst my pretty lad is young

And is growing.

3

I listened in the garden,

I looked o'er the wall;

Amidst five and twenty gallants there

My love exceeded all.

O the wind on the thatch,

Here and I alone must weep:

Whilst my pretty lad is young

And is growing.

4

O father, father dear,

Great wrong to me is done,

That I should married be this day,

Before the set of sun.

At the huffle of the gale,

Here I toss and cannot sleep:

Whilst my pretty lad is young

And is growing.

54

My daughter, daughter dear,

If better be, more fit,

I'll send him to the court awhile,

To point his pretty wit.

But the snow, snowflakes fall,

O and I am chill as dead:

Whilst my pretty lad is young

And is growing.

65

To let the lovely ladies know

They may not touch and taste,

I'll bind a bunch of ribbons red

About his little waist.

But the raven hoarsely croaks,

And I shiver in my bed;

Whilst my pretty lad is young

And is growing.

7

I married was, alas,

A lady high to be,

In court and stall and stately hall,

And bower of tapestry,

But the bell did only knell,

And I shuddered as one cold:

When I wed the pretty lad

Not done growing.

8

At seventeen he wedded was,

A father at eighteen,

At nineteen his face was white as milk,

And then his grave was green;

And the daisies were outspread,

And buttercups of gold,

O'er my pretty lad so young

Now ceased growing.