The Blackbird
Source: Where The Linnets Sings (2026)
Location: Track 26
On a fair summer’s morning of soft recreation,
I heard a fair maiden a’ making great moan.
With sighing and sobbing and sad lamentation,
A saying: ‘My Blackbird most royal has flown.
My thoughts they deceive me, reflections do grieve me,
And I am o’er burdened with sad memory.
Yet if death it should blind me, as true love inclines me,
I would seek out my Blackbird wherever he be.
Once in fair England my Blackbird did flourish,
He was the chief flower that in it did spring.
Prime ladies of honour his person did nourish
Because that he was the true son of the king.
But alas this false fortune that still is uncertain
Has caused this long parting between him and me.
His name I’ll advance in Spain and in France.
And I’ll seek out my Blackbird wherever he be.
The birds of the forest they all met together;
The turtle was chosen to dwell with the dove.
And I am resolved in fair or foul weather,
In winter or in springtime, to make him my love.
He’s all my heart’s treasure, my joy and my pleasure,
And truly my sweetheart my heart follows thee.
He is constant and kind and courageous of mind;
All bliss to my Blackbird wherever he be.
In England my Blackbird and I were together,
When he was still noble and generous of heart.
But it’s woe to the time that he first went from hither,
Alas, from that land he was forced for to depart.
In Scotland he is deemed and highly esteemed.
In England he’s seen still in exile to be,
Yet his name will still remain on in France and in Spain.
All bliss to my Blackbird wherever he may be.
It is not the ocean that frights me with danger
Although like a pilgrim I wander forlorn.
I can still hope for comfort from those who are strangers
Much more than from those that in England were born.
Oh, heaven so spacious, to Britain be gracious
Though there are those in it that are odious to me.
May joy and renown and laurels still crown
My Blackbird with honour wherever he be.