The trees they do grow high (Traditional)
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- Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2023-12-12). Score information: Letter, 12 pages, 649 kB Copyright: Personal
- Edition notes:
General Information
Title: The trees they do grow high
Composer: Anonymous (Traditional)
Arranger: Edward Sweeting
Lyricist: Traditional
Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong, Folksong
Language: English
Instruments: A cappella
First published: 1925 Novello and Co.
Description: English Folk Song
External websites:
Original text and translations
English text
The trees they do grow high and the leaves they do grow green,
And many’s the cold winter’s night my love and I have seen;
Of a cold winter’s night, my love, you and I alone have been,
Whilst my bonny boy was young, but was growing.
“I’ll send your love to college, all for a year or two,
And then, when the years have passed, he will be wed to you;
I’ll buy him white ribbons, tie them round his bonny waist,
To let the ladies know that he’s married.”
At the age of sixteen, he was a married man,
At the age of seventeen, he was father to a son,
At the age of eighteen, the green grass grew over him.
Cruel death soon put an end to his growing.
And he shall have a shroud of the very best of brown,
And whilst in the making the tears, they shall run down,
Crying, “Once I’d a sweetheart, but now I’ve never a one,
So, fare you well, my own true love, forevermore.”