Green Bushes

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Green Bushes (c. 1819–1844)

English and Scottish folk song, Roud #1040, Laws P2.

2893800Green Bushesc. 1819–1844


GREEN
BUSHES


As I was a walking one morning in May,
To hear the sweet birds sing aloud from the spray,
I spied a young damsel—so sweetly sung she,
Down by the green bushes wher he thinks to meet me.

I'll buy you fine beavers and a fine silken gown,
I'll buy you fine petticoats flounced to the ground,
If you'll but prove loyal and constant to me,
And forsake your own true love and marry with me.

I want none of your beavers nor fine silken hose,
For I never was so poor as to marry for clothes,
But if you'll prove loyal and constant to me,
And forsake your own true love and marry with me.

Come let us be going, kind sir, if you please,
Come let us be going from under this tree.
For yonder he's coming, my true love I see,
Down by the green bushes where he thinks to meet me.

Oh! when he came there and found she was gone,
He stood like some lambkin that was quite forlorn,
She is gone with another and forsaken me.
So adieu the green bushes for ever said he.

Now I'll be a school-boy and spend my time in play,
For I never was so foolishly deluded away;
For there's ne'er a false woman shall serve me so more,
So adieu the green bushes 'tis time to give o'er.


This work was published in 1844 and is anonymous or pseudonymous due to unknown authorship. It is in the public domain in the United States as well as countries and areas where the copyright terms of anonymous or pseudonymous works are 179 years or less since publication.

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