Lament of the Irish Emigrant
Traditional - Helena Selena Blackwood, Lady Dufferin
Music by G.A. Barker - Different from Rankin's version

I'm sitting on a stile Mary where we once sat side by side
On a bright May morning, long ago when first you were my bride.
The corn was springing, fresh and green and the lark sang loud and high
And the red was on your lips, Mary and the love light in your eyes.
 
'Tis but a step down yonder lane the village church stands near
The place where we were wed, Mary, I can see the spire from here
But the graveyard lies between Mary and my step might break your rest
Where I laid you, darling, down to sleep with a baby on your breast.
 
I'm very lonely now, Mary for the poor make no new friends
But oh they love the better still, the few our Father sends
For you were all I had, Mary, my blessing and my pride
And I've nothing left to care for now, since my poor Mary died.
 
Yours was the good brave heart, Mary, that still kept hoping on
When the trust in God had left my soul and my arm's young strength had gone
There was comfort ever, on your lip and a kind look on your brow
And I thank you Mary for the same, though you cannot hear me now
 
I'm bidding you a long farewell, my Mary kind and true
But I'll not forget you, darling, in the land I'm going to
They say there's bread and work for all and the sun shines always there
But I'll not forget old Ireland where it's fifty times as fair
 
And often in those grand old woods I'll sit and shut my eyes
And my heart will wander back again to the place where Mary lies
And I think I'll see that little stile where we sat side by side
In the springing corn and the bright May morn when first you were my bride
 
And the springing corn and the bright May morn when first you were my bride

Origins of this song at the Mudcat Café
 
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