As I Roved Out (or The False Bride)
Source: The Stone Fiddle by Paddy Tunney
Location: New Edition, page 93 / 94
As I roved out on a bright May morning
To view the meadows and flowers gay,
Whom should I spy but my own true lover as
She sat under yon willow tree.
I took off my hat and I did salute her,
I did salure her courageously.
When she turned around and the tears fell from her saying:
“False young man you have deluded me.”
“For to delude you, how can that be my love?
It’s from your body I am quite free.
I’m as free from you as the child unborn is and
So are you too, dear Jane, from me.”
“Three-diamond rings sure I own I gave you,
Three-diamond ring to wear on your right hand.”
“But the vows you made love, you went and broke them and
Married the lassie who had the land.”
“If I married the lassie who had the land, my love,
It’s that I’ll rue till the day I die.
Where misfortune falls sure no one can shun it, I
Was blindfolded I’ll never deny.”
Now at night when I go to my bed of slumber
The thoughts of my truelove run in my mind.
When I turn around to embrace my darling, In-
Stead of gold sure it’s brass I find.
And I wish the queen wuold call home her armies
From the West Indies, America and Spain.
And every man to his wedded woman in
Hopes that you and I would meet again.