Oh the trees they do grow tall an' the leaves are green
And there's many a day that you an' I have seen
But once I had a true love, but now I walk alone
He's a bonnie lad, he's daily growing.

Oh, father, dearest father, you've done me great wrong
You've married me to a boy who is much too young
Oh, I'm twice twelve, an' he's but fourteen.
He's a bonnie lad, he's young but he's growin'.

Oh, father, dearest father, oh ain't it pleased as you
I'll send my male to a school for a year or two
And don't talk of his college cap, he'll wear a ribbon 
ball
So that the other girls might know that he's married.

One day when I was walking all alone down by the school 
wall
I saw the boys were playin' at the bouncin' of the ball
An' my own true love was the fairest of them all
He's a bonnie lad, he's daily growing.

At the age of fourteen he was a married man
At the age of fifteen the father of a son
At the age of sixteen his grave, the grass grew green
Cruel death had put an end to his growin'.

I'll buy my love a shroud of ornamental ground
And place it on his grave, oh the tears come trippling 
down.
For once I had a true love but now I have not.
But I'll watch his bonnie son while he's a-growin'.