I've been unable to find any printed antecedents of this song, although the one in the DT is obviously related:


BUNCH OF VIOLETS BLUE
As sung by Brendan Shine

1. It was out in a moonlit garden, not far from the ballroom grand.
A young lad and his sweetheart went strolling hand in hand.
Tomorrow the war would call him; he vowed he would be true.
Then from her dress she gave to him a bunch of violets blue.

2. They were only a bunch of violets, a bunch of violets blue,
Fresh and fair and fragrant, like diamonds on the dew,
Fresh and fair and dainty as he pressed them to his heart.
He smiled and said where'er he'd roam, from them he ne'er would part.

3. A soldier boy lay dying upon the cold, cold ground.
A bunch of withered violets upon his breast was found.
Turning to his comrades, in a feeble voice he sighed:
"Take them back and tell her that I wore them till I died."

4. They took the withered violets back, it being on her wedding day.
An old man's gold had won her from her soldier far away.
An old man's gold had won her from her soldier young and tall,
And this was what she said to him that evening at the ball:

REPEAT #2.