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When I was young and in my prime, my age scarce twenty-one,
I acted as a servant unto a gentleman;
I served him true and honest and very well it's known,
But through cruelty they banished me from Erin's lovely home.
The reason that they banished me I mean to let you hear,
I own I loved his daughter and she loved me so dear;
She had large stores of riches but riches I had none,
And that is why they banished me from Erin' s lovely home.
'Twas in her father's garden all in the month of June,
While picking of the flowers all in their youth and bloom;
She said, my dearest William, if along with me you'll roam,
We'll bid adieu to all our friends at Erin's lovely home.
I gave consent that very night along with her to go,
Far from her father's dwelling which proved my overthrow;
The night being bright by the moonlight as we set out alone,
And thinking we'd get safe away from Erin's lovely home.
But to our sad misfortune, I mean to let you hear,
And in a few hours after, her father did appear;
He marched me back to gaol in the county of Tyrone,
From there I was transported from Erin' s lovely home.
And there I lay under sentence before I sailed away,
My love she came into the gaol and this to me did say:
Cheer up, my dearest William, it's you I'll not disown,
Until you do return again to Erin's lovely home.
And when I heard my sentence passed, It grieved my heart full sore,
The parting from my own true love did grieve me ten times more;
There's seven links upon my chain and every link a year,
Before I can return again to the arms of my dear.
Collected in 1951 from Frank Knox of St. Shott's, NL, and published in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada © 2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).
A variant was also collected by MacEdward Leach [1897-1967] and published as #10 in Folk Ballads And Songs Of The Lower Labrador Coast (National Museum Of Canada, Ottawa, 1965).
