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from Volkslieder (Folksongs)

O! don't be beguilin' my heart with your...
Language: English 
O! don't be beguilin' my heart with your wilin', 
You've tried that same thrick far too often before, 
And by this blessed minnit an' day that is in it, 
I'll take right good care that you'll try it no more! 
You thought that so slyly you walked with O'Reilly, 
By man and by mortal unheard and unseen, 
While your hand he kept squeezin',  and you looked so pleasin,'  
Last Saturday night in your father's boreen. 

His thricks and his schamin' has set you a-dhramin'; 
That any one blessed with their eyesight may see, 
You're not the same crature you once war by nature, 
And they that are thraitors won't do, faith, for me! 
Tho' it is most distressin' to think that a blessin' 
Was just about fallin' down plump on the scene, 
When a cunning culloger, as black as an ogre, 
Upsets all your hopes in a dirty boreen. 

And 'tis most ungrateful, unkind, and unfaithful, 
When you very well know how I gave the go-by, 
Both to pride and to pleasure, temptation, and treasure, 
To dress all my looks by the light of your eye.  
O! 'tis Mary Mullaly, that lives in the valley, 
'Tis she that would say how ill-used I have been, 
And she's not the deludher to smile and to soother, 
And then walk away to her father's boreen. 

I send you your garter, for now I'm a martyr, 
And keepsakes and jims are the least of my care, 
So when things are exchangin',  since you took to rangin' 
I'll trouble you, too, for the lock of my hair. 
I know by its shakin',  my heart is a-breakin',   
You'll make me a corpse when I'd make you a queen,  
But as sure as I'm livin', it's you I'll be givin' 
A terrible fright, when I haunt the boreen!

Available sung texts:   ← What is this?

•   A. Needham 

A. Needham sets stanzas 1, 3-4

About the headline (FAQ)

View text with all available footnotes

Confirmed with The Ballads of Ireland, Volume II, London, Edinburgh and Dublin: A. Fullarton & Co., 1857, pages 307-308.


Text Authorship:

  • from Volkslieder (Folksongs) , "The lover's complaint" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Alicia Adélaïda Needham (1863 - 1945), "Your Father's Boreen", published 1904, stanzas 1,3-4, from A Bunch of Shamrocks, no. 4, London: Boosey & Co. [ sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this page: Melanie Trumbull

This text was added to the website: 2017-05-05
Line count: 32
Word count: 307

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