From Songs of Erinn by Patrick Joseph McCall (London: Simpkin Marshall & Co., 1899), page 105:


THE BONNIE BLUE HANDKERCHIEF.
AN OLD SONG RE-WRITTEN.

As I went out to walk on a morning in May,
I met with a sweet little maid on the way,
With cheeks like the rose and with hair like the whin,
And a bonnie blue handkerchief under her chin.

"Pray, where are you going?" said I, "pretty maid."
Said she, "To the cottage beyond in the glade;
There my mother and I all the morning will spin,
With my bonnie blue handkerchief under my chin."

'' Pray why do you wear that blue favour?" I cried.
"'Tis the custom down here," she demurely replied;
"I'd be out of the world, or the fashion be in,
With a bonnie blue handkerchief under my chin."

"Pray, what would you do, if a loving young man
To kiss you in earnest this moment began?"
"Something else," she replied, "he should give me to win,
With my bonnie blue handkerchief under my chin."

I pulled out my purse and I took out a ring,
And I said, "Pretty maid, isn't this the right thing?
For as true as this gold is my true heart within
To that bonnie blue handkerchief under your chin."

Though we live in the city, far, far, from the glen,
With her by my side, I'm the proudest of men;
Oh, I still bless the day when she went out to spin,
With a bonnie blue handkerchief, under her chin.