COME ALL YOU FAIR AND TENDER LADIES Top of page

Come all you fair and tender ladies, take warning how you court your man -
They're like the stars on a summer's morning; first they appear and then they're gone.

They'll tell to you some loving story; they'll swear to you that their love is true,
Then straightaway they'll go and they'll court another, and that's the love that they have for you.

If I had known before I courted what all his lying could have done
I'd have locked my heart in a box of golden and never would have courted none.

I wish I was a tiny sparrow, and I had wings and I could fly.
I'd fly away to my false true lover, and all he'd ask I would deny.

But I am not a tiny sparrow, and I've no wings and I can't fly,
So I'll sit right here in my grief and sorrow and let my troubles pass me by. 

JULIAN OF NORWICH Top of page
by Sydney Carter, ©1981 Stainer & Bell, ltd.
Admin. in USA by Hope Publishing, Carol Stream IL 60188 (ASCAP). Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Loud are the bells of Norwich and the people come and go
Here by the Tower of Julian I tell them what I know.

Ring out! Bells of Norwich, and let the winter come and go.
All shall be well again, I know.

Ring for the yellow daffodil, the flower in the snow.
Ring for the yellow daffodil, and tell them what I know.

Love, like the yellow daffodil, is coming through the snow.
Love, like the yellow daffodil, is lord of all I know.

 JOVANO JOVANKE Top of page
Jovano, Jovanke
Krai vardara sedish, more, belo platno belish,
Belo platno belish, dushe, se ne gorai, glaidash
Jovano, dear Jovano - sitting on the bank of the Vardara River, washing clothes...

Jovano, Jovanke
Ja ste tebye chekam, moré, doma da mi doidesh,
A te ne dovaidesh, dushe, serdtse moyo, Jovano
Jovano, dear Jovano - I wait for you but you do not come, my love...

Jovano, Jovanke
Tvoyata maika, more tebye ne te pushta
Sto mene da doidesh dushe, serdtse moyo, Jovano
Jovano, dear Jovano - your mother doesn't permit me to see you...

BORDERLANDS Top of page
© by Danny Carnahan
Used by permission; all rights reserved.

The young man sat above the town in the glow of the setting sun
With his head held cradled in his hands, his back against a stone
Saying "Why have I so little time in this wretched place to stand
When I can't take the girl I love back home to the Borderland, oh?

For I watch her dance upon the hill and I live but for her song
And she never dreamed I waited here so silent and so long
But her golden hair to strike me down and her brown eyes strike me blind
And the thought I'll ne'er see her again is torturing my mind, oh"

The maid walked down the hill nearby toward home and the end of day
And she caught the sound of the young man's words and stopped along her way
No voice had she ever heard as sweet as the voice of the stranger lad
And she stood there as if turned to stone and listened from the shadow

But the young man's words reached out to her where she stood upon the lea
And they built her ships upon the clouds and castles on the sea
And as he spoke her eyes did flash and burn as with a flame
And the maid stepped out around the stone as if he'd called her name, oh

"Pray lament no more," she said, her voice like a gentle sea,
"For I have heard your every word and I know them meant for me,
And if you speak in truth my lad and you love me as you say
There can be no reason we must part, not even for a day, oh"

The young man started at her words and he stood up straight and tall,
Said, "I never meant for you to hear me speak this way at all,
For you can never have me love, it's useless to deceive
For I mut return to the Borderlands, I am bound to leave you."

"I care not where you're bound, my lad, I care not where you're from,
For the one thing that I'm certain, 'tis this maiden's heart you've won.
So take me with you where you must, I freely go your way,
And I will lie here in your arms to greet the light of day, oh."

Tenderly he laid he down and next to her did lie.
The wind that whispered through the trees was sweet as a lullabye.
Bending low, he folded her into his soft embrace.
With a touch he sent her fast asleep with a smile upon her face, oh.

"Sleep content, my love, he said, I cannot cause you pain,
But the dawn will find me far away and I won't be back again
And though I'd take you if I could, I am not what I seem
So forget we ever tarried here and wake as from dream.

"For I am not of your world, my love, I come from another time
And I crossed here from the Borderlands between your world and mine.
'Twas there that I first heard your voice and longed for your face to see
And I gathered all the powers I had and stepped out on your lee, oh

"And you know I watched you quietly as you danced upon the hill
Though I dared not call to you, I loved you stronger still
But no longer do I have the power, no longer can I stay
And I'll be pulled back into my time by the dawning of the day, oh

"But I will be your pillow where e'er your head will lie.
I'll be the star you can only catch in the corner of your eye.
I'll be the sound of laughter in the first low flower of dawn.
I'll be the touch to brush your cheek and wake you in the morning..."

Saying this, he bended down and he kissed her once goodbye.
As the dawn broke on the hill, he vanished like a sigh,
And the maid, she opened up her eyes and smiled up through the trees
For as she listened she could almost hear his voice upon the breeze, oh.

"I know you hear me love," she whispered from her grassy bed,
"For I felt your touch, I felt your kiss and I heard the words you said.
And the next time that our worlds combine cannot be very far
And I'll be waiting then to take your hand and dance among the stars, oh."

 JACK MONROE Top of page

Johnny's gone a-sailing with trouble on his mind
For the leaving of his country and his darling girl behind.
Dora lee a laddie, dora lee my lilly oh.

She has gone to tailor's shop, dressed in men's array,
Signed on board a man-o-war, conveyed herself away

"Before you step onboard, sir, your name I'd like to know."
With a smile upon her countenance she answered, "Jack Monroe!"

"Your waist it is too slender, your fingers are too small
And your cheeks to red and rosy to face the cannon ball."

"I know my waist is slender, my fingers they are small,
But I'll never faint nor falter, though thousands 'round me fall!"

The drums did loudly rattle, sweet music they did play,
And unto the field of battle they soon did sail away.

When the war had ended, in a circle she marched round
And among the dead and dying, her darling boy she found.

 BOUND AWAY Top of page
© 1996 Susan Welch
Used by permission; all rights reserved.

I hear voices 'cross the water. I can't tell what words they say,
But I can hear their frequent laughter, and my soul is bound away.

My demise will hold no power; its grip grows weaker day by day
My skin may feel its touch forever, but my soul is bound away

I will shed these gloves of hatred - bury them deep in the clay
And though my hands may dig forever, my soul is bound away

I won't need a boat to ferry; I won't need a bridge to span;
I won't need to swim that water. I will go just as I am.