> Sandy Denny > Songs > Green Grow the Laurels
> Norma Waterson > Songs > 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 ; Bodleian Roud 279 ; GlosTrad Roud 279 ; trad.]

This parting song is from Peter Kennedy, Folksongs of Britain and Ireland, and was collected from Robert Cinnamond, Northern Ireland, in 1955.

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.

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 A Canadian Garland: Folksongs from the Province of Ontario.

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 Green Grow the Laurels: Country Singers from the South. Mike Yates commented in the album's notes:

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.

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 commented in the album's sleeve notes:

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.

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 licencing officers haven't found us yet! This is one of the songs that gets them all singing.

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.

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:

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.

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

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.