Tommy Makem – Wind That Shakes The Barley lyrics

I sat within the valley green
I sat there with my true love
My fond heart strove to choose between
The old love and the new love
The old for her, the new that made
Me think on Ireland dearly
While soft the wind blew down the glen
And shook the golden barley

Twas hard the mournful words to frame
To break the ties that bound us
But harder still to bear the shame
Of foreign chains around us
And so I said, "The mountain glen
I'll seek at morning early
And join the bold united men"
While soft wind shook the barley

Twas sad I kissed away her tears
Her arms around me clinging
When to my ears that fateful shot
Come out the wildwood ringing
The bullet pierced my true love's side
In life's young spring so early
And on my breast in blood she died
While soft wind shook the barley

I bore her to some mountain stream
And many's the summer blossom
I placed with branches soft and green
About her gore-stained bosom
I wept and kissed her clay-cold corpse
Then rushed o'er vale and valley
My vengeance on the foe to wreak
While soft wind shook the barley

Twas blood for blood without remorse
I've taken at Oulart Hollow
I placed my true love's clay-cold corpse
Where I full soon may follow
Around the glen I wandered drear
Noon, night and morning early
With breaking heart when e'er I hear
The wind that shakes the barley