Words and music RW 1978 



As I came down by the weary well 

Going there to fill my can 

My fortune there I do declare 

She took me by the hand 

The lark gives tongue when summer comes 

Though time cracks every song 

As if newborn and as forlorn 

Twas me that loved her long 



The willow tree, the willow tree 

That Christ cleft for his flocks 

I saw the candles burn in the church 

and the door of the many locks 

The ocean roared against the shore 

In the dark before the day 

I pulled my coat up round my throat 

And I turned my face away 



My curses on the carpenter 

Who built the doors so strong 

That she and me might parted be 

and parted be for long 

Before I´m old with wandering 

By the high roads and the low 

I´ll steal his hammer and his nails 

Till he can build no more 



I wish that I were in her bed 

Where I have been before 

Her arms entwined around my neck 

and her fine breasts rising so 

I wish her door was bolted fast 

With two locks and a chain 

and she and I inside to lie 

Safe from the wind and rain 



Sun and fire and candlelight 

To all the world belong 

But the moon pale and the midnight 

Let these delight the strong 

Where wild geese fly across the sky 

Her voice is like the air 

and the midnight dark is in her eyes 

and the night is on her hair