| |
| IT WAS early, early in the spring, | |
| The birds did whistle and sweetly sing, | |
| Changing their notes from tree to tree, | |
| And the song they sang was Old Ireland free. | |
| |
| It was early, early in the night, | 5 |
| The yeoman cavalry gave me a fright; | |
| The yeoman cavalry was my downfall | |
| And taken was I by Lord Cornwall. | |
| |
| ’Twas in the guard-house where I was laid | |
| And in a parlor where I was tried; | 10 |
| My sentence passed and my courage low | |
| When to Dungannon I was forced to go. | |
| |
| As I was passing by my father’s door, | |
| My brother William stood at the door; | |
| My aged father stood at the door, | 15 |
| And my tender mother her hair she tore. | |
| |
| As I was walking up Wexford Street | |
| My own first cousin I chanced to meet; | |
| My own first cousin did me betray, | |
| And for one bare guinea swore my life away. | 20 |
| |
| My sister Mary heard the express, | |
| She ran upstairs in her morning-dress— | |
| Five hundred guineas I will lay down, | |
| To see my brother safe in Wexford Town. | |
| |
| As I was walking up Wexford Hill, | 25 |
| Who could blame me to cry my fill? | |
| I looked behind and I looked before, | |
| But my tender mother I shall ne’er see more. | |
| |
| As I was mounted on the platform high, | |
| My aged father was standing by; | 30 |
| My aged father did me deny, | |
| And the name he gave me was the Croppy Boy. | |
| |
| It was in Dungannon this young man died, | |
| And in Dungannon his body lies; | |
| And you good Christians that do pass by | 35 |
| Just drop a tear for the Croppy Boy. | |
