Ireland's Green Shore

(Public Domain, arranged by Tim O'Brien)

One evening for pleasure I rambled
On the banks of some cold purling stream
I set down on a bed of primroses
And I gently fell into a dream

I dreamt that I saw a fair female
Her equal I never saw before
And I sighed for the loss of our country
As we stray there on Ireland's green shore

Her cheeks were like two bloomin' roses
Her teeth were like ivory so white
Her eyes shone like two sparkling diamonds
Or the stars on some cold frosty night

She was dressed in the richest attire
And green was the mantle she wore
All bound down with the hemlocks and the roses
As we stray there on Ireland's green shore

Transgression of joy I awoken
I found this was only a dream
That pretty fair female had fled me
I longed to be slumbering again

May the heavens above be her guardian
Though I know I'll never see her anymore
May the goldliest sunbeam shine upon her
As she lies sleeping on Ireland's green shore

One evening for pleasure I rambled
On the banks of some cold purling stream
I set down on a bed of primroses
And I gently fell into a dream

source of the lyrics

This song has been on my mind a lot lately. I don't know why. I find it often helps me to sleep to put this album on, The Crossing, right as I go to bed. This first song, probably my favorite on the album, puts me in a sort of sleepy, make-believe romantic fantasy world, sort of mood. Yeah, that's right.

An interesting side note to this, as I was googling for this song, I found out it was the wedding march at Dixie Chicks' fiddler Martie Seidel's wedding. Since she was supposed to marry ME, this is a bit of a bummer.

Anyway, great song! I'll need to learn this one on guitar. I might be back with the chord progression at some point.

A couple more sidenotes: 1) In the lyrics version on Tim's site, the "loss of our country" was written "laws of our country," but that just doesn't make any sense. I'm pretty sure he says "loss" and changed the line accordingly. 2) I looked up the word "purling," and it means "flowing or rippling with a murmuring sound."

"Purling." Sounds very Irish, doesn't it?