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Green Grow the Laurels
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Green Grows the Laurel
Green Grows the Laurel / Green Grow the Laurels / I Once Loved a Lass
[
Roud 279
/ Song Subject MAS133
; 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 James Porter and Herschel Gower: Jeannie Robertson: Emergent Singer, Transformative Voice 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 printed in Peter Kennedy, Folksongs of Britain and Ireland, as was collected from Robert Cinnamond, Northern Ireland, in 1955.
Jack Fuller sang Green Grow the Laurels to Peter Kennedy at Laughton near Lewes, Sussex on 11 November 1952. This recrording was included in 2012 on the Topic anthology of songs by Southern English gypsy traditional singers, I’m a Romany Ray (The Voice of the People Volume 22).
Charlotte Higgins sang Green Grows the Laurel in a recording made by Hamish Henderson in 1954 on the c.1962 Prestige album Folksongs & Music From the Berryfields of Blair.
Jeannie Robertson of Aberdeen sang Green Grow the Laurels in a 1958 recording made by Peter Kennedy. It was released on the anthology Songs of Courtship (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 1; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1970). Its booklet noted:
According to a charming old fancy, flowers speak the language of love. The red rose and the violet mean true love, the rue and the origane (marjoram) mean false; while the green of growing laurel stands for young love, fickle or constant. Probably all of these notions have been entertained by singers of Green Grow the Laurels in the course of its long travels through the British Isles and North America, for folk memory is like the laurel, fickle as well as constant. Most often, perhaps, the last line occurs as: “We’ll change the green laurel for the orange and blue.”
Anne Gilchrist says that the colours had political significance in the rebellion of ’98. ‘Orange and blue’ may then have represented the union of loyal Irish and English Protestants, while the green laurel tree was the symbol of Irish liberty.
Another authority points out that ‘orange and blue’ were the colours of a highly esteemed North of England regiment. When an Irish or Scots girl fell in love with a soldier wearing these colours, she would give up her green laurel (her political loyalty or her virtue) to wear his colours. Perhaps the most curious accident to befall this bitter-sweet song of parting occurred south of the Rio Grande River in Mexico. The invading American troops in the War of 1840 sang Green Grow the Laurels so incessantly that the Mexicans nicknamed them ‘gringos’.
In Great Britain Green Grow has long been a campfire favourite of gypsies, tinkers and travelling folk, and thus it came into the hands of Jeannie Robertson, a traveller herself, and the descendant of a long line of ballad singers. Her song speaks for a young girl who has lost her lover, but still hopes to prove him faithful.
Sam Larner sang a fragment of Green Grow the Laurels in a recording made by c$ Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger and Charles Parker in 1958-60. It was included in 2014 on his Musical Traditions anthology Cruising Round Yarmouth.
Caroline Hughes sang Green Grows the Laurel Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger and Charles Parker in 1963 or 1966. This recording was included in 2014 on her Musical Traditions anthology Sheep-Crook and Black Dog.
Eleanor Leith sang I Aince Loved a Lad at Leith Town Hall, Edinburgh in November 1963. This concert’s recording was released in 1964 on the Waverly album The Hoot’nanny Show Vol. 1.
Daisy Chapman sang Green Grows the Laurel in 1965 at home in George Street, Aberdeen, to Peter Hall. This recording was included in 2000 on her Musical Traditions anthology Ythanside. Rod Stradling noted:
As this song seems to have been sung by almost every traditional singer I’ve come across, and is still particularly popular among the Traveller communities, it’s surprising to find only 86 examples in Roud—from Canada, England, Ireland, Scotland and lots from the USA. It has had many titles, including Orange & Blue, Pretty Polly and Moonshiner. There are 12 other sound recordings, including those still available by Mary Delaney (EFDSS CD002), Jeff Wesley (Veteran VT116), Robert Cinnamond (Folktracks FSB015), Louie Fuller (Topic TSCD665) …
Most versions include several ‘floating’ verses which often make this song difficult to distinguish from the numerous incarnations of Died for Love / A Brisk Young Sailor / The Willow Tree (Roud 60).
LaRena Clark sang 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 of Lingfield, Surrey, sang Green Grow the Laurels in a recording by Mike Yates in c.1974 as the title track of Topic’s 1976 album of country singers from South England, Green Grow the Laurels. This recording was also included in 1998 on the Topic anthology of songs of love, courtship and marriage, As Me and My Love Sat Courting (The Voice of the People Volume 15), and in 2015 on the Musical Traditions anthology of songs and recitations from the Mike Yates collections, 1964-1978, I Wish There Was No Prisons. Mike Yates noted on the first album:
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.
Alison McMorland sang Green Grows the Laurels at the Kinross Festival in September 1975 (or possibly 1974). This recording was published in 1976 on the Springthyme album Scots Songs and Music Live From the Kinross Festival 2.
Tommy Dempsey sang Green Grow the Laurel in 1976 as the title track of his and John Swift’s Trailer album Green Grow the Laurel.
Mary Delaney of Co Cork, Ireland, sang Green Grows the Laurel to Pat Mackenzie and Jim Carroll in London in July 1977. This recording was included in 1986 on the VWML cassette, Early in the Month of Spring, in 1998 on the EFDSS anthology A Century of Song and in 2003 on the Musical Traditions anthology of songs of Irish travellers in England, From Puck to Appleby. Carroll and Mackenzie noted:
The laurel has always occupied an important place in folklore: as a symbol of peace or victory; as a cure for various ailments, including rheumatism; and even to induce poetic inspiration. In some parts of the world it was used to bring about forgetfulness and the Pennsylvania Indians were said to have used it to commit suicide. In Europe, it was best known as a love charm, to cement a relationship or, when burned, to bring back an errant lover. In England, it was believed that if a pair of lovers pluck a laurel twig and break it in half, each keeping a piece, they will remain lovers. The laurel verse often turns up in traditional songs, as here, as a ‘floater’ verse, indicating unrequited or lost love.
Andy Cash and Mikeen McCarthy also had versions of this; Andy’s had the verse:
Oh it’s oft-times that I wondered how women love men,
And it’s more times I wonder how young men love them,
It is in our old knowledge we’ll have youse to know
That young men are false hearted wherever they go.
Harry Brazil sang Green Grow the Laurels to Gwilym Davies in Gloucester in February 1978. This recording was included in 2007 on the Brazil Family’s Musical Traditions anthology Down by the Old Riverside.
Sue Harris sang Green Grow the Laurels in 1978 on her Free Reed album Hammers & Tongues.
Dolores Keane, John Faulkner, Andy Irvine sang Green Grows the Laurel at Hannes Wader’s Windmühle ‘Fortuna’, Struckum or Tonstudio St Blasien, Northeim, in October 1980. These recordings were released on the 1981 Folk Freak album Folk Friends 2.
Johnny Collins and friends sang Green Grows the Laurel in 1982 on their Traditional Sound album Free & Easy. This track was also included in 1998 on his Fellside compilation of songs from his traditional Sound albums, The Best of the Early Years, in 2001 on the Fellside anthology of unaccompanied English traditional songs, Voices in Harmony and in 2005 on Fellside’s budget compilation Men Folk. Paul Adams noted:
Another very widespread English country song which is very popular with travellers and gypsies. It has an air of familiarity about it in that people will readily join in the eminently singable chorus. Flowers, herbs and trees have always held a lot of symbolism. Green laurels represent innocence and fickleness whereas violets stand for truth and constancy. Johnny’s chorus is: Tom & Barbara Brown, Charley Yarwood, Jim Mageean, Anni Fentiman, Geoff Anderson and Keith Pollard.
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.
Bryony sang Green Grow the Laurels in 1984 on their Traditional Sound cassette Part Time Job.
Jill and Bernard Blackwell sang Green Grows the Laurels in 1986 on their Fellside album Adventures of Notion. They noted, perpetuing the ‘gringo’ myth:
There was o time when this became so popular with campaigning American soldiers that the Mexicans corrupted ‘green grows’ and nicknamed them ‘Gringos’. It’s one of the most singable of porting songs ond always in demand by club ond festival audiences.
Jeff Wesley sang Green Grow the Laurels in 1988 to John Howson at Whittlesbury, Northamptonshire. This recording was published in the same year on his 1988 Veteran Tapes album of “songs from a Northamptonshire farmer”, Brisk & Bonny Lad. This track was also included in 2005 on the Veteran anthology of English traditional folk singers, It Was on a Market Day—One. Mike Yates notes:
This is another song that turns up all over the place, and yet, surprisingly, there are only a couple of broadsides known; one printed by an obscure printer in Gateshead (Stephenson), the other by Fortey of London, who gave it the rather clumsy title of I Changed the Green Willow for the Orange and Blue. Scholars, unlike singers, have argued for years over the song. According to Lucy Broadwood, ‘the orange and the blue’ refers to the girl’s wedding dress. Anne Gilchrist, on the other hand, noted a resemblance between the versions that use the phrase ‘bonnets of blue’ with the blue bonnets worn by the supporters of the Young Pretender, and so saw a connection with the Jacobite cause. But, Miss Gilchrist also suggested that, as the term ‘orange and blue’ was used in the Orange song The Protestant Boys, the song symbolised the union of Irish and English Protestants. Whatever the origin, though, it’s a popular song and versions can be found in many British and American collections.
Will Duke and Dann Quinn sang Green Grow the Laurels on their 1996 Hebe album Wild Boys. They noted:
The tune and some of the words are from Mary Delaney, an Irish traveller who can be heard on the tape Early in the Month of Spring, published by by the English Folk Dance and Song Society. Most of the words are from Louie Fuller of Lingfield, Surrey. A spirited performer, her regular engagement is the interval spot at the local bingo.
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.
Rosie Carson and Kevin Dempsey sang Green Grows the Laure on their 2009 album The Salty Diamond.
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 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
Jack Fuller sings Green Grow the Laurels
I met a pretty damsel when her age was sixteen,
She was as good looking as a young fairy queen.
I walked her, I talked her, I led her astray,
For she changed the green laurels for the violets again.
Chorus:
Green grows the laurels; so does the dew,
Sorry I’ve seen since I parted from you.
Whenever I return, love, my joys will be new,
For/And we change the green laurels for the violets so blue.
For the first one I met he was a page boy,
I gave him ten shillings to call him my joy.
I gave him ten shillings a thousand times more,
But since we have parted it’s cost me ten more.
For the second one I met he was a bold tar,
Her eyes and her metal shone like the blue stars.
I gave her a wink and called her away,
And we changed the green laurels for the violets again.
Jeannie Robertson sings Green Grow the Laurels
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 to weep and to mourn,
And we’ll change the green laurels to the violets so blue.
For he wrote me a letter all rosy and lined,
But I wrote him another all twisted and twined,
Saying: Keep your love letters and I will keep mine,
For you write to your sweetheart and I’ll write to mine.
He passes my window both early and late,
And the looks that he gives me it makes my heart break.
And the looks that he gives me it makes my heart break,
So we’ll change the green laurels to the violets so blue.
Green grow the laurels and sweet falls the dew.
Sorry was I when I parted with you;
But I hope the next meeting, I hope you’ll prove true.
And we’ll change the green laurels to the violets so blue.
Sam Larner sings a fragment of Green Grow the Laurels
..........................
He took down a probe(?) and he told her to go,
And not to deceive him, of course, you must know.
Green grow the laurels, so does the rose
Sorry was I when I parted with you.
And if ever I return again, my joys I’ll renew,
I’ll change your green laurels for the violets so blue.
Caroline Hughes sings Green Grows the Laurel
Oh, once I was a school-maid with my pencil and slate,
But can’t you see what I’m come to by stopping out late;
My parents disliked me, they turned me ‘way from the door,
Then I told them that I’d ramble like I rambled a-fore.
Then I picked up my baby as I walked from the door,
Then I told them that I’d ramble just like I used to by fore.
Then it’s green grows the laurels, yes and cold blow the dew,
How sorry was I when I first met with you.
It’s like the lilies in the garden, oh, when their beauty’s all gone,
They will go ‘way and they’ll leave you, like my true love left me.
Daisy Chapman sings Green Grows the Laurel
I aince had a sweethert bit noo I hae nane,
He’s gone and he’s left me tae wander ma lane;
He’s gone and he’s left me, contented I’ll be,
But I’ll find anither far better than he.
Chorus:
Oh, green grow the laurels and soft falls the dew,
Sorry was I, love, when parted from you;
But by our next meeting I hope you’ll prove true,
And change the green laurels to the violets o’ blue.
He passes my window both early and late,
And the looks that he gives me doth make my heart break;
And the looks that he gives me a thousand times o’er,
And that is the sweethert that I once did adore.
He wrote me a letter of red rosy lines,
He wrote me another all twisted and twined;
So keep your love letters and I’ll keep mine,
And write to your sweethert and I’ll write to mine.
I oft times do wonder why young maids love men,
I oft time do wonder why young maids love them;
But by my experience, I should tae know,
Young men are deceivers wherever they go.
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.
Mary Delaney sings Green Grows the Laurel
Come on pretty fair maids;
take a warning by me,
Don’t you ever look up to,
oh, the top of a tree,
Where those green leaves they will wither
and the flowers will incay.
And the beauty of a fair maid
will soon cade away.
Now me mamma she blames me
for courting too young,
She may blame my small beauty
and my flattering old tongue.
She may blame my small beauty
and my dark rolling eye,
If my love is not for me
and sorry am I.
Oh then, thank God, agraghy,
the case could be worse,
I got money in my pocket
and gold in my purse,
When my baby will be born
I can pay for a nurse,
And I’ll pass as a maiden
in a strange countery.
Now if I was a scholar
I could handle a pen,
I could write my love a letter
that he might understand,
I could write him a letter
in twisted and twined,
For no more I can do love
when I can’t spare no time.
Oh then green they grew, the laurel
and sad fall the dew,
And sorry was the night love
when I parted from you,
And in our next meeting
I hope we’ll be true,
We can love one another
and bound to be true.
Harry Brazil sings Green Grow the Laurels
… sorry was I when I parted with you
The next time we meet love we’ll joy unto me
And we’ll change the green laurels for the red white and blue.
Now I oftentime wonder how women loves men
I oftentime wonder how men do love them
They’ll kiss you and court you and say they’ll be true
For women is false wherever you go.
Now I pass my love’s window both early and late
I pass my love’s window as I go by the gate
Don’t you think that have caused my heart to break
For to think that she’s tied to another.
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.
Jeff Wesley sings Green Grow the Laurels
Once I had a sweetheart but now I have none.
She’s gone and she’s left me to weep and to mourn.
She’s gone and she’s left me another to see,
But I’ll soon find another much better than she.
Chorus:
Green grows the laurels, soft falls the dew,
Sorry was I, love, at parting from you
Sorry was I, love, at parting from you
But I’ll change the green laurels to violets of blue.
I passed by her window both early and late,
The look that she gives me that makes my heart break.
The look that she gives me a thousand would kill,
Though she hates and detests me, I love that girl still.
I wrote her a letter on red rosy lines,
She wrote me an answer all twisted and twined,
Saying keep your love letters and I’ll keep mine,
Saying you write to your love and I’ll write to mine.
Now it’s oft times I wonder why young girls love men
And oft times I wonder why young men love them,
But to my own knowledge, well I should know,
Young girls are deceivers wherever they go.
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:
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:
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:
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.