Song Description

Traditional Irish song about love and loss of young husband.

Lyrics

The trees they grow high and the leaves they do grow green
Many's the time my true love I've seen
Many an hour I've 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 am 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 have married you to a great Lord's son
He'll make a lord for you to wait upon
He's young but he's daily growing

Father dear father if you see fit
We'll send him 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 I was looking o'er my father's castle wall
I spied all the boys a'playing with the ball
My own true love was the flower of them all
He's young but he's daily growing

By the age of fourteen, he was a married man
By the age of fifteen, the father of a son
By the age of sixteen, his grave it was green
And death had put an end to his growing.