Lovely Willie
Source: Where The Linnets Sings (2026)
Location: Track 9
It happened one evening at the playing of ball
That first met Willie, both proper and tall.
He was neat, fair and handsome and straight in each limb.
There’s a heart in my bosom lies breaking for him.
‘Oh, won’t you come with me a small piece of the road
To see my father’s dwelling and place of abode?’
He knew by her looks and her languishing eye
That he was the young man she had cherished most high.
‘There’s a spot in my father’s garden, lovely Willie’, said she,
‘Where lords, dukes and earls they wait upon me,
But when they are sleeping in their long, silent rest,
I’ll go with you, Lovely Willie, you’re the boy I love best.’
Her father being listening, in ambush he lay
To hear the fond words that these lovers did say.
And with a sharp rapier he pierced her love through,
And the innocent blood of her darling he drew.
The grave was got ready, lovely Willie laid in.
The Mass it was chanted to clear his soul of sin.
‘And it’s oh, honoured father, you may say as you will,
But the innocent blood of my love you did spill.’
‘And I will go off to some far country
Where I will know no one and no one knows me.
And it’s there I will wander till I close my eyes in death
For you, lovely Willie, you’re the boy I love best.’