Digital Tradition Mirror

Red Haired Man's Wife

(This score available as ABC, SongWright, PostScript, PNG, or PMW, or a MIDI file)
Pennywhistle notation and Dulcimer tab for this song is also available

Red Haired Man's Wife

Oh ye muses divine,
  Combine and lend me your aid
To pen these few lines,
  For I find that my heart is betrayed
By a virgin most pure,
  Who is dearer to me than my life
But  from me she is flown,
  And is known as the  red-haired  man's wife

Oh, a letter I'll send
  With a friend down to the seashore
To let her understand
  I'm the man that does her adore
And if she would but leave that slave
  I will forfeit my life
She'd live like a lady
  And ne'er be the red-haired man's wife

I offered a favor
  And sealed it with my own hand
She thus answered and said
  "Would you lead me to break the command?
Oh, take it easy
  Since Nature can cause so much strive
I was given away
  And will stay as the red-haired man's wife"

May my life never end
  Nor my yearning for passion abate
Till me and my darling
  lie as one 'neath the pleasant tree's shade
With no one to be near us
  Save the black bird in the green leaves alone
And the red-haired man in his grave
  With his head 'neath a stone

recorded by Ray Fisher
SOF

Thanks to Mudcat for the Digital Tradition!