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Green Grows the Laurel
Green Grows the Laurel / Green Grow the Laurels / I Once Loved a Lass
[
Roud 279
; Master title: Green Grows the Laurel
; G/D 6:1138
; Henry H165ab, H624
; Ballad Index R061
; GlosTrad
Roud 279
; DT GREENGRO
, GRENGRO2
; Mudcat 11139
; trad.]
Gale Huntington: Sam Henry’s Songs of the People Peter Kennedy: Folksongs of Britain and Ireland Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger: Travellers’ Songs From England and Scotland Alison McMorland, Willie Scott: Herd Laddie o’ the Glen John Ord: Bothy Songs and Ballads Roy Palmer: Folk Songs Collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams Steve Roud, Julia Bishop: The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs Nick Dow: Southern Songster Stephen Sedley: The Seeds of Love
This parting song is from Peter Kennedy, Folksongs of Britain and Ireland, and was collected from Robert Cinnamond, Northern Ireland, in 1955.
LaRena Clark sang this song as I Once Loved a Lass in 1965 in Toronto to the Canadian folklorist and collector Edith Fowke. It was released in 1969 on her Topic album of folksongs from the Province of Ontario, A Canadian Garland. Fowke noted:
This song combines a number of folk-lyric commonplaces with some graphic and unusual lines to make a new and distinctive whole. Although it is reminiscent of several other songs, I have found no parallel in any of the published literature in either Britain or America. Its title is the same as a song in the Miscellanea of The Rymour Club which is a variant of The False Bride, but this does not belong to the same family. Stanza 4 comes from Green Grows the Laurel, stanza 5 is usually found in The Green Brier Shore, while stanza 6 turns up in a Catskill song called My Love is Like a Dewdrop. Despite these borrowings, the song has an unusual freshness, thanks to such domestic references as ‘the piecrust made to be broke’ and the milkmaids who ‘have ne’er churned a churn’
Eddie Butcher of Magilligan, Co. Derry, sang two versions, Green Grows the Laurel and So Falls the Dew and Green Grows the Laurel and So Does the Rue, in July 1966 to Hugh Shields. These recordings were included on the 3 CD set that accompanied Shields’ 2011 book on Eddie Butcher, All the Days of His Life.
Sandy Denny recorded Green Grow the Laurels for the BBC World Service radio programme “Cellar Full of Folk”, hosted by Alex Campbell, on 2 December 1966; it was broadcast on 11 January 1967. This recording was made available in 1989 on the fan club cassette The Attic Tracks Vol. 3 and in 2007 on the Live at the BBC 3CD+DVD set.
Louie Fuller sang Green Grow the Laurels in a recording made by Mike Yates in between 1972 and 1975 as the title track of the Topic album country singers from South England, Green Grow the Laurels. Mike Yates noted:
Ophelia, Shakespeare’s tragic heroine, sings a number of song snatches in the play Hamlet. Several of these deal with what some writers call “the language of flowers” as does our present song. Of Green Grow the Laurels Peter Kennedy has this to say: “As love symbolism, green laurels imply innocence and fickleness, whereas violets stand for truth and constancy.”
The song is often met with today in southern England and is especially popular with travellers and gypsies.
Sue Harris sang Green Grow the Laurels in 1978 on her Free Reed album Hammers & Tongues.
Len Graham sang Green Grows the Laurel in 1983 on his Claddagh album Do Me Justice. He also sang it at the Fife Traditional Singing Festival, Collessie, Fife in May 2011, which was published in the following year on the festival anthology The Little Ball of Yarn (Old Songs & Bothy Ballads Volume 8). He noted on his album:
Many flowers and trees had a symbolic meaning in former times; but over the years the early significance has often been forgotten and the symbols have sometimes changed their meaning. For instance, this song mentions the violet, which seems to have always stood for true love; whilst the rush can mean honesty or, sometimes, docility. However, the green laurel, which can stand for young love or fickleness, is also a symbol of faithfulness and has even been associated with Irish political loyalty. The laurel is also a symbol of glory in war and the arts. The tree was dedicated to Apollo, and the wreath was used to crown philosophers, orators and poets as well as triumphant Caesars. Regardless of its botanical significance this fine song came from Eddie Butcher, with some help from Robert Cinnamond. Other versions appear in the Songs of the People as no. 165a and b, 479 and 624.
Julie Henigan sang Green Grows the Laurel on her 1997 CD American Stranger (an extended reissue of her 1993 cassette). She noted:
A love song learned from a recording of the sublime Co. Antrim singer Len Graham, who got this version chiefly from Eddie Butcher of Magilligan, Co. Derry. The song, which seems to have been particularly popular among “travellers” in Britain and Ireland, contains allusions to several forms of symbolic flora.
Elspeth Cowie sang Green Grow the Laurel on her 2000 album Naked Voice. She noted:
The path of true love never runs smooth and all that jazz. I had this version of a song well known to the travelling folk from Jeannie Robertson via Cy Laurie.
Norma Waterson learned quite a different version of Green Grows the Laurel with just a similar chorus from Queen Caroline Hughes. She recorded it in 2000 for her third solo album, Bright Shiny Morning. She noted:
From Queen Caroline Hughes. Of all English Traditional singers I think that Queen Caroline Hughes is my favourite. I first heard of her from Ewan MacColl in the early 1960s after he had recorded her for the radio ballad The Travelling People. Lal, Mike and I had a tape from (I think) Ewan in the early 1960s.
Claire Mann sang The Green Laurels on her 2001 album Claire Mann. She noted:
It is hard to determine the origins of this song as there are so many different versions of it. This version comes from the fabulous singing of Lorraine Jordan, a singer/songwriter based in Edinburgh.
Mary Humphreys and Anahata sang Green Grows the Laurel in 2004 on their WildGoose album Floating Verses. Mary Humphreys noted:
The tune and text come from Robert Cinnamond of Co Antrim, but the style is pure East Anglian pub session. Many is the Thursday evening that Anahata and I have been found making music along with a group of like-minded performers in pubs with sympathetic landlords. Suffolk and Norfolk still have such places and the licensing officers haven’t found us yet! This is one of the songs that gets them all singing.
Ed Rennie sang Green Grow the Laurels in 2004 on his Fellside album Narrative. He noted:
Laurels for the pain of new love, violets for constancy. This version is from the lovely singing of the great Scots singer Jeannie Robertson.
Kris Drever sang Green Grow the Laurels in 2007 on his Reveal/Compass album Black Water. This track was also included on the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2007 compilation. Drever noted:
An old song performed in a variety of ways over the years. I found the lyrics for this version in a collection of Jeannie Robertson songs, the main part of the melody is from an American version. I learned it from a Bruce Molsky recording.
Graham and Eileen Pratt sang Green Grows the Laurel in 2008 on their album The Greek King’s Daughter. They noted:
A sentimental Irish love song adopted by the music halls but originally an allegory of political allegiance. We got this from Jake Walton’s Keltische Folksongs—from the singing of Dolores Keane.
Tim Radford sang one verse of The Orange and the Blue in 2009 on his album of songs collected by George B. Gardiner in 1906-07 from the Hampshire gardener George Blake, George Blake’s Legacy. He noted:
Gardiner mss. no. 337. However, the full text of this song seems to have been in missing notebook no. 10. This is a “specimen verse” from Guyer’s tune notebooks and was collected in Bitterne in November 1907. The Roud no. is 279, and Gardiner also collected another fragmented Hampshire version from James Channon of Ellisfield H952. It is a very widespread song, also found throughout North America, Scotland and Ireland as well as England, and has even been collected into the late 20th century.
There is a handwritten note on the manuscript music that says “White/Green Cockade”. To my knowledge, these tunes have no relationship to Orange and Blue or Green Grows the Laurels, so I don’t understand why the note appears or who wrote it.
Lynne Heraud and Pat Turner sang Green Grows the Laurel in 2010 on their WildGoose CD Tickled Pink. They noted:
This has, unexpectedly, proved to be one of our most popular songs. There are a number of versions, often interspersed with floating verses. This one is constructed from texts in Ord’s Bothy Songs and Ballads, the Sam Henry Collection and a broadside in the Crampton Collection.
David Gibb sang Green Grows the Laurel on is 2011 album There Are Birds in My Garden. He noted:
A song about love and all the heartache that goes with it. I like it because even though the language has moved on it shows that things are still basically the same. Somebody much more informed on the subject told me that we play it as traditional European waltz. Her definition was simply: “You just go round and round like buggery!”
Sue Brown & Lorraine Irwing sang Green Grow the Laurel in 2012 on their RootBeat album The 13th Bedroom. They noted:
One song to the tune of another—Lorraine put the words of this tale of unrequited love to the beautiful Sheffield carol tune Malin Bridge. By coincidence, Malin Bridge is just down the road from where this album was recorded.
Josienne Clarke sang Green Grow the Laurels in 2012 on her and Ben Walker’s CD Fire and Fortune.
The Spiers Family sang Green Grows the Laurel in ca 2012 on their album Plenty Brass and a Bonny Lass. They noted:
Another song which Maggie [Spiers] learned from the recordings of Lottie Buchan of Peterhead, made by Peter Hall in the 1960s. The song’s origin is unclear as it is known popularly throughout the English speaking world.
This video shows Iona Fyfe singing Green Grow the Laurels at a Silver City Session in Aberdeen in February 2016:
Maurcie Leyden sang Green Grows the Laurel on the anthology of songs from the repertoire of Robert Cinnamond, ’Tis Pretty to Be in Ballinderry. It was released in 2018 on the 50th anniversary of Cinnamond’s death.
The Alistair McCulloch Trio sang Green Grow the Laurel in 2018 on their Rostral album Off the Hook. McCulloch noted:
As a well travelled song of unrequited love, there are numerous variations of this song in many different traditions. Aaron [Jones] learned this particular version from the brilliant piper/singer Christy O’Leary (Boys of the Lough).
VARO with John Francis Flynn sang Green Grows the Laurel on their 2025 album of collaborations, The Wprld That I Knew. They noted:
We first heard this beautiful and sorrowful love song from Dolores Keane and John Faulkner’s recording Sail Óg Rua (1983). The condition in which the woman is left, as in countless other traditional love songs, is miserable. The lyrics lay bare this harsh reality of painful acceptance, lending the song a dramatic intensity.
Lyrics
Sandy Denny sings Green Grow the Laurels
Chorus:
Green grow the laurels, soft as the dew
Sad I was, darling, on parting from you
Perhaps in the future our love will renew
We’ll love one another and promise to be true
I wrote my love a letter and he wrote me mine
I wrote my love a letter, he wrote me mine,
Said: Keep your love letter and I will keep mine,
You write to your love and I’ll write to mine.
I passed my love’s window both night time and day,
I passed my love’s window both night time and day.
And the looks that he gave me a thousand would slay,
And the looks that he gave me a thousand would slay.
(Chorus)
Louie Fuller sings Green Grow the Laurels
I met a young damsel her age was sixteen,
She was as good looking as a young fairy queen.
I walked her, I talked her, I took her astray,
I changed the green laurels for the violets so gay.
Chorus (repeated after each verse):
Green grow the laurels, so does the dew,
Sorry ’I’ve been since I parted from you.
But when I return, love, my joys shall be new,
Then I’ll change the green laurels for the violets so blue.
Now the next one I met he was a bold tar,
His eyes and his medals shone like the blue star.
I gave him the wink and I called him away,
Then I changed the green laurels for the violets so gay.
Now the next one I met he was a pageboy,
I gave him my loving and all of my joy.
Now he has left me and gone far away,
But I’ll change the green laurels for the violets so gay.
Len Graham sings Green Grows the Laurel
And it’s green grows the laurel and soft falls the dew,
And sorry was I with the parting of you.
But at our next meeting, I hope we’ll prove true
And we’ll join the green laurel with the violet so blue.
Little said, soonest mended and a few words are best
And them that speak seldom they are surely blest.
I speak from experience, my mind tells me so.
If everyone had their own love they’d know where to go.
Over high hills and mountains, through the cold, frost and snow
I will follow my darling wherever she goes.
And if she had not the clothes for to wear
I would work while I’m able and I’d give my love share.
The anger of my father I don’t value one pin.
Nor the frowns of my mother for the loss of her son.
For since they’re hard-hearted and don’t pity me
I will make myself happy in some strange country.
I’ll go down to yonder valley where the wee birds do fly;
Where I will know no one, in sorrow I’ll cry;
Where notions provoke me to take my own will
My own rod’s, aye, the sorest, and it does beat me still.
And it’s green grow the rushes and the tops of them small,
And love is a thing that can conquer us all.
It can conquer us all of the high and the low degree;
Everyone to their mind and fancy, but my darling to me.
Norma Waterson sings Green Grows the Laurel
Now once I was a schoolgirl all in my pencil and slate
Can’t you see what I’ve come to from staying out late
And it’s once I had a colour that is as red as any rose
Ah but now I’m as pale as the lily that grows
Chorus (repeated after each verse):
And it’s green grows the laurel and so cold now blows the dew
And how sorry was I when I parted from you
Just like the rose in the garden when her bloom is all gone
Can’t you see what I’ve come to for loving that man
Now my parents disliked me they’ve turned me away from their door
So I told them that I’d ramble like I used to before
And I picked up my baby and I’ve walked out the door
And I told them that I’d ramble like I used to before
So it’s me and my baby and contented we will be
And I’ll try to forget him like he forgot me
And while there’s love on the ocean and there’s on dry land
While there’s breath into my body I will still love that man
Elspeth Cowie sings Green Grow the Laurel
Chorus (after each verse):
Green grow the laurel soft falls the dew
Sorry was I love when I parted from you
But at our next meeting I hope you’ll prove true
And we’ll change the green laurel to the violet so blue
I once had a sweetheart, now I have none
She’s gone an’ she’s left me to weep an’ to mourn
She’s gone and she’s left me here all alone
So we’ll change the green laurel to the violet so blue
She passes my window both early an’ late
An’ the looks that she gave me they made my heart ache
The looks that she gave me they made my heart break
So we’ll change the green laurel to the violet so blue
I wrote her a letter all silvery lined
She wrote me an answer all twisted an’ twined
Saying keep your lover letters I will keep mine
You write to your love an’ I’ll write to mine
I can’t think the reason why young maids love men
Nor I can’t think the reason why young men love them
But my experience leads me to know
Young maids love young men wherever they go
Claire Mann sings The Green Laurels
I once had a sweetheart, now I have none
He’s gone and left me to weep and to mourn
But I’ll find another better and true
And we’ll share the green laurels and violets of blue
Chorus (after each verse):
Green grow the laurels, sweet is the dew
Sorry was I love I parted from you
By our next meeting I hope you’ll prove true
And we’ll share the green laurels and the violets of blue
He stands by my window most every night
And the looks that he gives me they cause me delight
The looks that he gives me a thousand times o’er
Saying there goes the lass that I once did adore
He wrote me a letter in sweet rosy lines
I wrote him another all twisted and twined
Saying keep your love letters and I will keep mine
You write to your sweetheart and I’ll write to mine
I wonder I wonder why women love men
I wonder I wonder why they love them
For women are faithful and kind as you know
And men are deceivers wherever they go
Graham and Eileen Pratt sing Green Grows the Laurel
I once had a sweetheart, now he is gone;
He’s gone and he has left me, I’m here all alone.
And since he’s gone and left me, content I must be,
For I know he loves someone better than me.
I wrote him a letter, loving and kind;
He wrote me another with sharp bitter lines,
Saying: Keep your love letters and I will keep mine,
Oh, and you write to your love and I’ll write to mine.
I passed by his window, early and late;
The looks that he gave me would make your heart ache.
The looks that he gave me, ten thousand would kill.
Wherever he wanders, I love him still.
I once was as bonny as a red blushing rose;
But now I am as pale as the lily that grows,
Like a tree that’s in the autumn, its beauty all gone.
Can’t you see what I have come to by the loving of one?
Green grow the laurels, soft falls the dew;
Sad was my heart when I parted from you.
And in our next meeting, I hope that you’ll prove true.
Green grow the laurels, soft falls the dew.
Tim Radford sings The Orange and the Blue
Green grows the laurel and so does the rue
How sorry was I when I parted from you
At our next meeting our joys we’ll renew
We’ll change the green willow from orange to blue
The Spiers Family sing Green Grows the Laurel
I once had a sweetheart but now I’ve got none,
He’s gone and he’s left me to weep and to mourn.
He’s gone and he’s left me contented I’ll be
For I’ll find anither far better than he.
Chorus (after each verse):
Green grows the Laurel, soft falls the dew,
Sorry wis I love when parting from you.
But by our next meeting I hope you’ll prove true
And change the Green Laurel tae the Violets so blue.
He passes my window both early and late,
The looks that he gives me it makes my heart break.
The looks that he gives me a thousand times o’er
Says you are the sweetheart I once did adore.
I wrote him a letter four sweet rosey lines,
He wrote me anither aa twisted and twined.
Says keep your love letters and I will keep mine
Write tae yer new love and I’ll write tae mine.
I oft times do wonder why young maids love men,
I oft times do wonder why young men love them.
It’s been my experience and I ought to know
Young men you’re deceivers wherever you go.
Acknowledgements
Transcribed from the singing of Norma Waterson by Garry Gillard.