Digital Tradition Mirror

Girl I've Left Behind Me

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Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

Girl I've Left Behind Me

SOURCE:
Bob Pfeffer

SOURCE'S SOURCE: ????

COMMENTS:        AKA: Brighton Camp

TEXT:
     D                 G
I'm lonesome since I cross'd the hill
    D                  G  D
And o'er the moor and valley
      D                 G
Such heavy thoughts my mind do fill
       A7              D
Since parting with my Sally
       D
     I ask no more the fine or gay
         D                     A7
     For each but does remind me
           D                  G
     How swift the hours did pass away
               A7               D
     With the girl I've left behind me

Oh, ne'er shall I forget the night
The stars were bright above me
And gently lent their silv'ry light
When first she vow'd to love me
     But now I'm bound to Brighton Camp
     Kind Heaven, then, pray guide me
     And send me safely back again
     To the girl I've left behind me.

Had I the art to sing her praise
With all the skill of Homer,
The only theme should fill my lays -
The charms of my true lover.
     So let the night be e'er so dark,
     Or e'er so wet and windy
     Kind heaven send me back again
     To the girl I've left behind me.

Her golden hair, in ringlets fair,
Her eyes like diamonds shining,
Her slender waist, with carriage chaste,
May leave the swan repining.
     Ye gods above! oh, hear my prayer,
     To my beauteous fair to bind me,
     And send me safely back again
     To the girl I've left behind me.

The bee shall honey taste no more,
The dove become a ranger,
The falling waves may cease to roar,
Ere I shall seek to change her.
     The vows we register'd above
     Shall ever cheer and bind me
     In constancy to her I love, -
     Ye gods above! oh, hear my prayer,
     To my beauteous fair to bind me,
     And send me safely back again
     To the girl I've left behind me.

The bee shall honey taste no more,
The dove become a ranger,
The falling waves may cease to roar,
Ere I shall seek to change her.
     The vows we register'd above
     Shall ever cheer and bind me
     In constancy to her I love, -
     The girl I've left behind me.

Additional verses from Songs of the Irish in America, Meek.RG

She says,"My love, come home to me
My friends are rich and many;
Or else abroad with you I'll roam
A soldier stout as any.
     If you'll not come or let me go
     I'll think you have resigned me,"
     It broke my heart to answer, "No"
     To the girl I left behind me.

For never shall my true love brave
A life of war and toiling,
And never as a skulking slave
I'll tread my native soil on.
     But someday I'll return again
     If the rebels they don't find me
     And never will I roam again
     From the girl I left behind me.


RPf

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!