The Old Road to Paradise/When I Was a Young Girl
WHEN I WAS A YOUNG GIRL
(A Song of Old Ballads)
When I was a young girl, all in a green arbor, When I was a young girl in Springtimes gone by All the long days I went singing and smiling, Down by the roses the sweet days beguiling, Love in the arbor and love in the sky . . .When I was a young girl, a young girl, a young girl, When I was a young girl, how happy was I!
Oh, the long days I must sit at my sampler, Oh, the slow way that the still time would go! I longed to be running across the bright heather, "Off with the silk gown and on with the leather, Following the raggle-taggle gypsies, oh!"When I was a young girl, a young girl, a young girl, When I was a young girl, a long time ago!
When I was a young girl in days that were golden, When I was a young girl, and life had no smart, All the world seemed a place for my playing, Full of great lovers to come to me, saying, "Madam, I give you the keys of my heart . . ."When I was a young girl, a young girl, a young girl, When I was a young girl, and dreaming apart!
When I was a young girl, I dreamed of my lover, A tall cavalier who should whisper me low, "Love, on your lips are red roses a-blowing,I am your true love, and fast is time going Am I your true love? Oh, say yes or no!"When I was a young girl, a young girl, a young girl— When I was a young girl, a long time ago!
When I was a young girl there came my true lover, Swiftly I knew him in glad days gone by; Never a sword or a lovelock or feather, But oh, at his touch 'twas our hearts came together, Love in the arbor and love in the sky . . .When I was a young girl, a young girl, a young girl, When I was a young girl, how happy was I!