Adieu to Erin

Adieu to Erin

Farewell, dear Erin, I now must leave you
Where here I've spent many a happy day.
With lads and lassies and sparkling glasses
And now I'm bound for America.
Farewell, dear Erin, I now must leave you
And cross the seas to a foreign clime
Away from friends and kind relations,
And the aged parents I leave behind.

Farewell, green fields and sweet, lovely valleys,
Where me and my true love so oft did roam,
Where I fondly told her I ne'er would leave her
As we walked through a shady grove.
The crops are failing, the times are changing
Which causes thousands to go away.
Wait patiently until next season
And we'll both sail over to America.

Note: The night before we left Nova Scotia there was a little
gathering of neighbors and friends at our house and songs
were sung as usual, everyone trying to appear cheerful. Mother
was asked to sing this song, but before she finished it, her
voice broke and she had to leave the room. I never heard her
sing it again. It is evidently an old family song, as the words
which I did not know were supplied by my cousin.