The trees they do grow high (Traditional)

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• (Posted 2023-12-12)  CPDL #78150:     

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

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.”