Tell me, Mother, who will I marry?
Tell me as we stitch
While my father loves to tarry
Under a drunken ditch

Her mother said you are a princess
And you will seek your kind
He will sweep you off your feet
And you’ll live in a palace so fine

She met a boy and he seemed so right
With his stripes and his blue cockade
And they lay down on a pallet of straw
It seemed like a grand estate

She married the man to whom she was promised
With heavy heart she went
With servants to carry and servants to fetch
And no one to help her forget

Through the long lonely nights I call your name
Sleeping and waking to me are just the same
Everything I have I would gladly give
For thee, for thee

Through the long lonely nights I call your name
Sleeping and waking to me are just the same
Everything I have I would gladly give
For thee, for thee

Blue and gold, young and old
Beautiful or plain
The fortunes of war are a broken heart
On a golden chain

Pity the woman who marries for love
Her heart will never be free
And pity the woman who marries for land
For she’ll unhappy be

Through the long lonely nights I call your name
Sleeping and waking to me are just the same
Everything I have I would gladly give
For thee, for thee