Maid In Bedlam
Siren's Lament
Sailor's Curse
Siren's Defeat
One I Love
Thyme
Barbara Allen
Gypsy Hawk
Abroad as I was walking one evening in the spring
I heard a maid in bedlam so sweetly for to sing
Her chain she rattled in her hand and thus replied she
“I love my love because I know my love loves me”
“Oh cruel were his parents that sent my love to sea
And cruel was the galleon that bore my love from me
But I love his parents, since they’re his Although they’ve ruined me
And I love my love because I know my love loves me”
“Of straw I’ll weave a garland, I’ll weave it very fine
With roses, daisies, lilies, I’ll mix the Egglantine
And I’ll present it to my love when he returns from sea
For I love my love because I know my love loves me”
Now as this maid sat weeping, her love he came on land
And hearing she was in bedlam he ran straight out of hand
He flew into her snow white arms and thus replied he
“I love my love because I know my love loves me”
So now these two are married and happy may they be
As turtledoves together in love and unity
Oh pretty maids with patience wait that have got loves at sea
For I love my love because I know my love loves me
My home is a shoal on a picturesque coastline
My life is a sorrow of death and remorse
With angelic sound my voice rings ‘cross the ocean
It’s only design, to steer ships off their course
Chorus
For I am a Siren I spend my life singing
Young men to their deaths, on reefs filled with blood
A creature of doom with the voice of an angel
Condemned forever to live without love
I once was a maiden whose fair face and manner
Was the talk of the town as I strode along
All heads turned to watch me, but also to hear me
For always upon my lips was a song
A sailor did hear me and swore he did love me
He courted me rightly, he promised me all
He took me into his strong arms and he loved me
Took my maiden head, thus began my fall
Chorus
Though my sailor did profess to love me truly
His actions proved that another held sway
He renounced me outright and cleaved to another
Courted her, married her, then sailed away
I ran to the cliffs that looked o’er our harbor
I watched his ship sail from my own native shore
I let loose my voice, in my rage started singing
I watched his ship turn, and towards me it bore
Chorus
My voice was a sweet as that of an angel
It rang o’er the waves like a clarion bell
I watched as my sailor’s ship crashed on the rock shoal
Then I knew truly, I’d sung his death knell
I cast myself off of the cliff to the waveline
Hoping to drown all my pain in the sea
I landed so lightly upon the shoal’s beach head
Then did King Neptune take his price from me
Chorus
I saw my love flailing in dark stormy waters
He called out my name and begged for my hand
He said that I was the one he loved truly
My heart was so broken, I could not understand
My love and his shipmates all drown ‘neath cold waters
I stood on the shoreline so scared and alone
King Neptune did rise from the waves to inform me
This shoal would remain forever my home.
Chorus
I’ve watched hundreds die, drawn in by my singing
What once was a blessing, now is my curse
T’will take a love truer than mine ever had been
A voice much stronger my fate to reverse
So now I sit on my rock and I wonder
Why love is so fickle and pain is so long
Why no man’s heart is so true to his lady
To prevent him being lured in by my song
Chorus
So you women who fancy that men might be faithful
Know that their hearts can be turned with a song
Remember the Siren who’s heart remains broken
Who’s condemned to a loveless life ever long
Chorus
My curse lies upon the salt seas
And fated am I to roam them
For centuries long in a form not my own
And all for the love of a Siren
So many long years have passed since I
Sailed on a ship as a helmsman
A maid in all ports and a good hand on deck
Until I set eyes on my Siren
Her face and her figure so pretty so fair
Enough to set man’s heart to poundin’
Then she sang with a voice of the muses themselves
And I fell in love with a Siren
Oh I rue the day that I touched any other
As my downfall it would be
My folly did cause the birth of a child
And his mother lay claim to me
She forced me to wed, and I did comply
Although my heart it pained
And I swore to myself though I could never tell her
True to my love, I’d remain
I returned to the sea right after I wed
Hoping to escape my misfortune
But my love’s heart did rage and my ship was drawn in
By the beautiful voice of my Siren
My ship ran aground and I sank ‘neath the waves
But because of my love unbroken
I was changed to a dolphin and condemned to wait
For the voice that would free my Siren
My curse lies upon the salt seas
And long now I have roamed them
And long has my love sung men to their deaths
And still I must wait for my Siren
Black is the color of my true love’s hair
And Green is the color of his eyes
A more handsome man you’ve never seen
Under the clear blue skies my love
Oh under the clear blue skies
My love he is a sailor lad
He sails the ocean wide
And never a truer hand at the helm
Did sail the stormy tide my love
Did sail the stormy tide
Upon a lovely summer’s day
His ship drew near the shore
And I went up to the high rollin’ cliffs
To watch her as she bore my love
To watch her as she bore
A siren’s song came over the bay
As sweet as it could be
The ship turned tack and sailed away
Taking my love from me, my love
Oh taking my love from me
The siren’s song drew them away
Towards the reef’s great breadth
And if my true love followed the song
T’would surely be his death my love
T’would surely be his death
That I sang like an angel fair
Twas known both far and wide
So my voice clear and true as a bell
Went rolling across the tide my love
Went rolling across the tide
My love sure when he heard my voice
Of the siren’s spell set free
He turned the wheel and the ship did come
A sailing back toward me my love
A sailing back toward me.
The crew did not my own voice hear
The siren still held sway
And as our voices rang o’er the tides
The ship she sailed away my love
The ship she sailed away
“Hold off my crew mates hear ye not”
My love he did implore
“The sound of my own fair angel true
That’s guiding us safe to shore my love
That’s guiding us safe to shore
The crew did stop and listen to
The song the siren sang
Then my voice over powered hers
As over the waves it rang my love
As over the waves it rang
The crew did hear, and one did say
“T’is an angel from above”
“No no my friend what you do hear
Is the voice of my true love My love
The voice of my true love”
The ship heaved too and turned back to shore
Now safely free from harm
And I ran down to the docks to find
The warmth of my true love’s arms my love
The warmth of my true love’s arms
Black is the color of my true love’s hair
And Green is the color of his eyes
A more handsome man you’ve never seen
Under the clear blue skies my love
Oh under the clear blue skies
Chorus
One I love
Two he loves
Three he’s true to me
All of my friends fell out with me
Because I kept your company
But let them all say as they will
I love my love with a free good will
Chorus
They tell me he’s poor, they tell me he’s young
I tell them all to hold their tongue
If they could part the sand from the sea
They never would part my love from me
Chorus
It’s over the mountains he must go
Because his fortunes are so low
With a heavy heart and a troubled mind
For leaving his love so far behind
Chorus
When I’m awake I find no rest
Until his head’s upon my breast
When I’m asleep I’m dreaming of
My own, my dear, my one true love
Chorus
When the fire to ice will run
And when the sky no longer turns
And when the sand melts with the sun
My love for you will have just begun
Chorus
back to top
Thyme - Traditional
Come all ye fair and tender maids that flourish in your prime, prime
Beware, beware keep your gardens fair
Let no man steal your thyme your thyme
Let no man steal your thyme
For when your thyme is dead and gone
He’ll care no more for you, you
And every day that your garden is waste
He’ll spread all over with rue, with rue
He’ll spread all over with rue
The gardener’s son was standing by
Three flowers he gave to me, me
The pink the blue, the violet true
And the red red rosy tree, tree
And the red red rosy tree
But I did spurn the red rose bush
And gained the willow tree, tree
That all the world may look and see
How my love slighted me, me
How my love slighted me
A woman is a branching tree
And man a singing wind, wind
And from her branches, carelessly
He’ll take what he can find, can find
He’ll take what he can find
Come all ye fair and tender maids that flourish in your prime, prime
Beware, beware keep your gardens fair
Let no man steal your thyme your thyme
Let no man steal your thyme
In Scarlett town where I was born
There was a fair maid dwellin’
Made every youth cry “well a day”
Her name was Barbara Allen
T’was in the merry month of May
Green green buds they were swellin’
Young Denny Grove on his death bed lay
For want of Barbara Allen
He sent his man down to the town
To the place where she was dwellin’
He said “Me master’s sake, he bids me call for you
And you be Barbara Allen”
So slowly slowly she got up
And slowly she went nigh him
And all she said when there she got
Was “I think you’re dyin’”
“Do you remember the other night
You were at the public house drinkin’
You toasted health to all the girls
Except for Barbara Allen”
He turned his head then toward the wall
And death was near him drawin’
“Adieu my friends for I must die
For slighting Barbara Allen”
Then later as she walked o’er the moors
She saw his corpse train comin’
“Oh lay down lay down his corpse” she said
“That I might gaze upon him”
The more she looked the more she wept
Until she burst out laughin’
And all his friends who stood by her said
“Hard hearted Barbara Allen”
“Oh mother go and make my bed
And make it long and make it narrow
For my true love has for me died today
And I must die tomorrow”
They buried Barbara in the old church yard
And they buried Denny beside her
And from his grave there grew a red red rose
And out of hers a briar
And they grew and grew in the old church yard
Till they could grow no higher
And at the top they tied a true lover’s knot
The red rose and the briar
All in the Highlands first I spied her
And her eye, ‘twas sparklin’ clear
As the brook sings o’er with laughter
So does my gypsy lady dear
Chorus
O’er hill and glen she ever wanders
And will as far as time can see
Like a hawk that’s soaring onward
Is my own gypsy lady
Come away with me she once invited
We’ll dance as though all life were June
On beds of flowers and these green pastures
Under the full sweet golden moon
Chorus
Betwixt the firelight and soft moon beams
Her blackest tresses shine and glow
Mischevious eyes and smile they both gleam
As she beckons me follow
Chorus
But I had my Inn to tend to
And the autumn drawing nigh
Though my heart will ever follow
Away from me this Hawk did fly
Chorus
O’er hill and glen I her did follow
For my lonely heart did pine
In Autumn’s pure gold I found her
There told her true, my heart is thine
O’er hill and glen we walk together
And will as far as time can see
Like all hawks that mate forever
I’ve found my hawk and she has me
Now with winter’s cold around us
Safe and warm near our firelight
My gypsy lass is here to soothe me
And in my arms I’ll hold her tight
O’er hill and glen we walk together
And will as far as time can see
Like all hawks that mate forever
My Gypsy Hawk truly has me
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