Jump to content

Rambling boy with the answer (1)/The Rambling Boy

From Wikisource

THE RAMBLING BOY.

I Am a rake and a rambling boy.
I’m lately come from Auchnacloy;
A rambling boy although I be,
I'll forsake them all and go with thee.

My father promis’d me houses and land.
If I would be at his command ;
At his command, love, I ne’er will be ;
I’ll forsake them all love and go with thee.

For houses and land they are but a plot,
Houses and land I do value not;
For houses and garden I will provide,
And have my darling down by my side.

Well doth he know I can shape and few,
Well doth he know I can bake and brew,
I can wash his linen and dress them fine.
And yet he’s gone and left me behind,

O Willie Baillie ye told me lies,
You’d build me castles up to the skies,
And every river should have a brigg.
And every finger a fine gold ring.

O Billy, I love thee well,
I love thee better than tongue can tell
I love thee well though I dare not show it,
My dearest dear, let no man know it.

I wish I were a black-bird or thrufh.
Singing my notes from bush to bush;
That all the world might plainly see,
I lov’d a man, and he lov’d not me.

Or was I but a silly fly.
In my love's bosom then would I lie.
When all the world was fall asleep,
In my love’s bosom then would I creep.

My love he came late In the night,
Seeking for his sweet-heart's delight;
He ran up stairs, the door he broke,
And found his love all in a rope

Then he went up and cut her down,
And in her bosom a note was found,
Wrote in shining letters so bright,
Enough a mortal’s heart to break.

“Go dig my grave both wide and deep,
And cover it with a marble stone;
And in the middle a turtle dove,
To show the world that I dy’d for love.

'Tis not for gold that I lie here,
Nor yet for jewels, know my dear;
But it is for that sweet Irish boy,
That has caused my sad destiny.