"Green Grows the Laurel"

Second part of The Cedar Grove set.

Was not found in any of the regular sources. An open search found this reference on the GEST Songs Of Newfoundland And Labrador website;

Collected in 1959 from Mrs. Clara Stevens of Bellburns, NL, by Ken Peacock and published in Songs Of The Newfoundland Outports, Volume 2, p.454, by the National Museum of Canada (1965) Crown Copyrights Reserved. A variant was also collected from Mike Kent (b.1904) of Cape Broyle, NL, and published as Nightingale Laurels in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada © 2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA). A variant in which the singer is a man was also published n 1935 in the novel Little House On The Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder. line

Searching for "Green Grow the Laurels", I found this reference on Numachi (The Digital Tradition), which claims it as found in "Folksongs of Britain and Ireland, Kennedy, Collected from Robert Cinnamond, N. Ireland, 1955", while a contributer on the Mudcat Cafe claims it is in "Herbert Hughes, Irish Country Songs, VOL IV. 1936." and that it was likely collected in West Kerry. Finally, another contributer says; "Green grows the Laurel (lilacs, orange and blue, etc.) is listed at 1908 in the Traditional Ballad Index.".

And so, checking the Traditional Ballad Index, we find; http://www.csufresno.edu/folklore/ballads/R061.html.

Lyrics;

Green Grow the Laurels

Green grows the laurel, soft falls the dew,
Sorry was I love when parting from you,
But at our next meeting I hope you'll prove true,
And we'll join the green laurel and the violet so blue.

I once had a sweetheart but now I have none,
He's gone and he's left me to weep and to mourn,
He's gone and he's left me for other to see,
I'll soon find another far better than he.

He passes my window both early and late,
And the looks that he gives me would make my heart break,
The looks that he gives me a thousand would kill,
Though he hates and detests me I love that lad still.

I wrote him a letter in red rosy lines,
He wrote back an answer all twisted and twined,
Saying keep your love letters and I'll keep mine,
You write to your love and I'll write to mine.

Now often I wonder why maidens love men,
And often I wonder why young men love them,
But from my own knowledge I will have you know,
The men are deceivers wherever they go.

Green grows the laurel, soft falls the dew,
Sorry was I love when parting from you,
But at our next meeting I hope you'll prove true,
And we'll join the green laurel and the violet so blue.