The Trees They Grow High
Lyrics and music traditional
Performed by Bedlam on Sleep Is a River


Oh the trees they grow high and the leaves they do grow green
Many is the time my true love I've seen
Many is the hour I have watched him all alone
He's young but he's daily growing.

Father, dear father, you've done me great wrong
You've married me to a boy who's much too young
I'm twice twelve and he is but fourteen
He's young but he's daily growing.

Daughter, dear daughter, I've done you no wrong
I've married you to a great lord's son
He'll be a man to you when I am dead and gone
He's young but he's daily growing.

Oh father, dear father, if you'll see fit
To send my love to college for one year yet
I'll tie blue ribbons all around his head
To let the ladies know that he's married.

One day while I was lookin' o'er my father's castle wall
I saw the young boys a-playin' at the ball
My one true love was the flower of them all
For he's young but he's daily growing.

And so they awoke at the dawning of the day
To head up to the hayfield to have a sporting play
And what they did there she never would declare
But she ne'er more complained of his growing.

At the age of fourteen he was a married man
Age of fiteen the father of a son
Age of sixteen o'er his grave the grass was green
Cool death has put an end to his growing.

I'll weave my love a shroud of the Hollister vine
With every stitch I put in it, o'er my true love I'll pine
Every stitch I put in it, the tears they will flow down
Cool death has put an end to his growing.