The rejected lover

On Innisfallen's fairy isle,

Amid the blooming bushes, O!

We leant upon the lover's stile

And listened to the thrushes, O!

When first I sighed to see her smile

And smil'd to see her blushes, O!

Her hair was bright as beaten gold

And soft as spider's spinning, O!

Her cheek outbloomed the apple old

That set our parents sinning, O!

And in her eyes you might behold

My joys and griefs beginning, O!

In Innisfallen's fairy grove

I hushed my happy wooing, O!

To listen to the brooding dove

Amid the branches cooing, O!

But oh! how short those hours of love,

How long their bitter ruing, O!

Poor cushat, thy complaining breast

With woe like mine is heaving, O!

With thee I mourn a fruitless quest,

For ah! with art deceiving, Oh! (sic)

The cuckoo-bird has robbed my nest

And left me wildly grieving, Oh!