The Lowlands of Holland


The love that I have chosen was to my heart's content.
The salt sea shall be frozen before that I repent.
Repent it I shall never, until the day I die,
But the lowlands of Holland have parted my love and me.

The very night we got married and lay upon our bed,
A pressgang came to my bedside and stood at my bedhead,
Saying,"Arise, arise you new married man, and come along with me,
To the lowlands of Holland, to face your enemy."

But Holland is a cold place, a place where grows no green.
But Holland is a cold place for my love to wander in.
Though money had been so plentiful as leaves grow on the tree,
Yet before I'd time to turn myself, my love was stolen from me.

Be still, be still, my daughter, what makes you to lament ?
Is there ne'er a lad in our town can give your heart content ?
There's lads enough in our town, but ne'er a one for me,
For I never had but one true love, and he was pressed from me.

There shall no mantle cross my back, no comb go through my hair,
No firelight nor candlelight shall ease my heart's despair,
And I will never married be, until the day I die,
For the lowlands of Holland have parted my love and me.

Midi sequenced by Terry Stephens
Used with permission

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