Daily Growing
Altan
The trees they grow high, the leaves they do grow green,
Many is the time my true love Ive seen,
Many an hour I have watched him all alone,
Hes young but hes daily growing.
Father, dear father, youve done me great wrong,
You have married me to a boy who is too young,
I am twice twelve and he is but fourteen,
Daughter, dear daughter, Ive done you no wrong,
He's young but he's daily growing
I have married you to a great lords son,
He will be a man for you when I am dead and gone,
Hes young but hes daily growing
Father, dear father, if you see fit,
Well send him to college for another year yet,
Ill tie a blue ribbon all around his head,
To let the maidens know that he is married.
One day I was looking over my fathers castle wall,
I spied all the boys playing with a ball,
And my own true love was the flower of them all,
He's young but he's daily growing
And so early in the morning at the dawning of the day,
They went into a hayfield to have some sport and play,
And what they did there she never would declare,
But she never more complained of his growing.
At the age of fourteen he was a married man,
At the age of fifteen the father of my son,
At the age of sixteen his grave it was green,
And death had put an end to his growing.
Ill buy my love some flannel, Ill make my love a shroud,
With every stitch I put in it, the tears they will pour down,
With every stitch I put in it, how the tears they will flow,
Cruel fate has put an end to his growing.