I am a young girl whose fortune was grand,
I owned that I courted a bright Irish lad.
I owned that I loved him by night and by day,
But now he has left me and gone far away.

Chorus:
My cheeks they were once like the bud of a rose,
But now they’re as pale as the lily that grows.
Like a flower in a garden whose beauty is gone,
Oh, see what it comes to be loved by a man.

My love he’s a bandsman, his fingers are small,
He can play in the banjo the sweetest of all.
And if e’er he returns I’ll crown him with joy,
And I’ll kiss the fond lips my bright Irish boy.

Chorus:
My cheeks they were once like the bud of a rose,
But now they’re as pale as the lily that grows.
Like a flower in a garden whose beauty is gone,
Oh, see what it comes to be loved by a man.

I wish I had never loved any at all,
For love is a plague and a torment to all.
For love is a plague and a torment to me,
I’m bound in love-chains and can never get free.

Chorus:
My cheeks they were once like the bud of a rose,
But now they’re as pale as the lily that grows.
Like a flower in a garden whose beauty is gone,
Oh, see what it comes to be loved by a man.

"This is made up of ‘floater verses’, i.e. verses that are found in many songs. Verse one, two and four are common to ‘Green Grows the Laurel’ (also sung by Tom). We found verse three in a song entitled 'My Love he is a Bandboy' which we recorded from Irish Traveller, Johnny Dooley – we haven’t been able to trace this either. The reference to the banjo might indicate that Tom got it from an Irish-American songster."
Jim Carroll