Story Behind the Song
This is one of the many Celtic songs in which a married soldier seduces a young maiden and leaves her behind.
Lyrics
As I roved out on a May morning, on a May morning right early
I met me love upon the way, Oh Lord, but she was early
And she sang lilt-a-doodle lilt-a-doodle lilt-a-doodle-dee
And she hi-da-land-da-dee and she hi-da-land-da-dee and she land-dae
Her boots were black and her stockings white and her buckles shone like silver
She had a dark and a rolling eye and her ear-rings tipped her shoulder
"What age are you, my bonnie wee lass? What age are you my honey?"
Modestly she answered me "I'll be seventeen on Sunday"
"If I went to the house on the top of the hill when the moon was shining clearly
Would you arise and let me in and your mammy not to hear ye?"
I went to the house at the top of the hill when the moon was shining clearly
She arose to let me in, for her mammy chanced to hear her
"Will you marry me now, me soldier lad? Will you marry me now or never?
Will you marry me now, me soldier lad, for you see I'm done forever?"
"I can't marry you, my bonnie wee lass, I can't marry you, my honey
For I have got a wife at home and how could I disown her?"
A pint at night is my delight and a gallon in the morning
The old women are my heartbreak, but the young one is me darling
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