The Trees They Do Grow High (Roud. 31)
Language: English (Scottish)

 

 

 

The trees they do grow high
The leaves they do grow green
Many's the time my love I have seen
Many the hour I watched him all alone
He's young but he's daily growing


Father, dear father 
you've done me great wrong
You've married me to a boy who is too young
I'm twice twelve and he is but fourteen
He's young but he's daily growing


Daughter, dear daughter
I've done you no wrong
I've married you to a great lord's son
He'll make a love for you to wait upon
He's young but he's daily growing


Father, dear father
if you see fit
I'll send him to college for one year yet
I'll tie blue ribbons all around his head
To let the maidens know that he's married


One day when I was walking
on my father's castle wall
I saw all the boys playing with a ball
My own true love was the flower of them all
He's young but he's daily growing


At the age of fourteen
He was a married man
At the age of fifteen the father of a son
At the age of sixteen the grass grew over him
Cruel death soon put an end to his growing