This version is #157 from Peter Kennedy's Folksongs of Britain and Ireland. Source for this version was Mary McGarvey of Donegal, recorded by Seamus Ennis in 1954

GREEN GRASS IT GROWS BONNY

I wonder what is keeping my true-love tonight
I wonder what is keeping him out of my sight
Little he knows all the pain I endure
He would not stay from me this night I am sure

O, love, are you not coming my pain to advance
Or, love, do you wait on a far better chance
Or have you but a sweetheart laid by you in store
Or are you coming to tell me you love me no more?

Love, I'm not coming your pain to advance
Or, love, do I wait on a far better chance
Or have I but a sweetheart laid by me in store
But I'm coming to tell you: I love you no more

I have gold in my pocket and love in my heart
But I can't love a maiden that has got two sweethearts
I love you just lightly like the dew on the thorn
That falls down at night and goes away in the morn

Green grass it grows bonny, spring water runs clear
I weary, I weary, when I think of you, dear
You were my first in true love, but it's now do I rue
The fonder I loved you, the falser you grew

Come, all young maidens, take a warning from me
Never build your nest on the top of the tree
The roots they will wither, the branches decay
Like that false-hearted young man, they will soon fade away


Niamh Parsons sings a lovely version of this song that is very close to this, but with the gender changed.<

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