The trees they grow high, and the leaves they do grow green
Many is the time my true love I've seen
Many an hour I have watched him all alone
He's young but he's daily growing
Father, dear father, you've done me great wrong
You have married me to a boy who is too young
I am twice twelve and he is but fourteen
He's young but he's daily growing
Daughter, dear daughter, I've done you no wrong
I have married you to a great lord's son
He will make a lord for you when I am dead and gone
He's young but he's daily growing
Father, dear father, if you see fit
We'll send him to college for another year yet
I'll tie a blue ribbon all around his head
To let the maidens know that he is married
One day I was looking over my father's castle wall
I spied all the boys playing with a ball
My own true love was the flower of them all
He's young but he's daily growing
At the age of fourteen he was a married man14
At the age of fifteen the father of a son15
At the age of sixteen his grave it was green16
And death had put an end to his growing