Six Excellent New Songs (Edinburgh)/The Belfast Maid's Lamentation
For other versions of this work, see The Belfast Maid's Lamentation.
The Belfast Maid’s Lamentation.
Come all you fair maids a warning take by me,And let not love affect you in any degree,For I was cross’d in love and it was my pain,By a hansome youth that has cross’d o’er the main. O that I was a little bird or had I wings to fly,I’d to the field of battle go and on him I would lieWith my little flittering wings his bleeding wounds I‘d clean,And on his lovely bosom I’d ever there remain. But now my love is gone I‘ll wander and I’ll roamThrough each lonesome valley making of my moanThe small bids of the bushes will join and pity meSince I have lost my jewel him I’ll never see. You maid’s all take pity on a poor wretched maidWho is by love affected and by Cupid’s dart betrayedYe gods of love assist me my burning flame to quenchI’m wounded by a young man who’s gone to fight the French, His lips are like the coral his cheeks like the roseHis skin is like the lilly and his eyes as black as sloesHe is proper tall and handsome in every degree,He has cros’d the wide ocean to face his enemy. If to the field of battle my dear darling he goes,O guardian angel protect him from his daring foes,May he be crown’d with laurels the boy that I adoreAnd may I live to see him in Belfast once more. If by the cruel French by darling should be slain,Then for ever single for his sake I will remain,Unto no other man breathing will I give my hand,Till I see my dear jewel in his own native land. O what misfortune ever took him from me,I wish I never had beheld his beautiful fine face,The words that pass'd between us on our parting dayI never will deny it he stole my heart away. He said to me my jewel come along with me,As we are young and any and from all dangers freeAnd while you are with me no danger would I fearBut hark the trumpet sound!—so fare you well my dear.