The original words from an old County Donegal ballad were collected and first printed in Herbert Hughes' Irish Country Songs (1909), and later published among 800 subscriber-submitted songs in Sam Henry's column "Songs of the People" (1924) in the local Northern Constitution newspaper, Coleraine, County Derry. The melody comes from a medieval-era fiddle tune from the same county.

The printed words were supposedly "reworked" by Padraic Colum, but in fact they differ little from recorded versions by Francis McPeake of Belfast (Caedmon Records, 1953), Robert Cinnamond of Belfast (title changed to "The Comely Young Dame," BBC, 1955), Brigid Tunney of Belleek, County Fermanagh (title changed to "Out of the Window," 1952), and Paddy Tunney (1955). Another oft-used title for this song is "Our Wedding Day."

The ABBA-form tune proceeds scale-wise in the A sections and with lovely triplet melismas on words like "beguiled" in the B section.



Selected verses:



I loved a wee lassie

When I was but young

And I own she beguiled me

With her flattering tongue

I own she beguiled me

And that well I know

I lost my wee darling

By courting too slow.



Her eyes shone like the

Stars on a clear frosty night

And when I looked on her

My heart filled with delight

All day I dote on her

And at night I would dream

I was rolled in the arms

Of my comely young dame.



My young love said to me:

"My mother won't mind

Nor my father slight you

For your lack of kind"

As she went away from me,

This she did say:

"It will not be long, love,

till our wedding day."

[or:...to the next market day"]



As my young love stepped from me

And she moved through the fair

And (or: how) fondly I watched her

Move here and move there

And then she went homewards

With one star awake

Like the swan in the evening

Moves over the lake.



The people were saying,

No two e'er were wed

But one had a sorrow

That never was said

And I smiled as she passed

With her goods and her gear,

And that was the last

That I saw of my dear.



The Sam Henry collection adds:



At the foot of Benbradden

Clear waters do flow

There dwells a wee damsel

Her breast white as snow

Her cheeks are like roses,

Her neck's like the swan

She's the Star of Benbradden

I would she were mine.



Paddy Tunney adds:



She went away from me

And moved through the fair

Where hand-slapping dealers'

Loud shouts rent the air

The sunlight about her

Did sparkle and play

Saying: It will not be long, love,

Till our wedding day.



When dew falls on meadow

And moss fills the night

When glow off the Grecian hearth

Throws the half-light

I'll slip from the casement,

And we'll run away

And it will not be long, love

Till our wedding day.

© "Blue" Gene Tyranny, Rovi