Lyrics

By the Clyde's bonny banks as I lately did wander
By the village of Blantyre I chanced for to roam
I spied a fair maiden she appeared in deep mourning
As she sadly lamented the fate of someone.

I stepped up to her I said my fair maiden
I am grieved for to see you in sorrow and woe
I heard you lamenting the fate of some young man
His name and what happened I'd wish for to know.

With sobbing and sighing at length she did answer
John Murphy kind sir was my true lover's name
He was twenty one years of age with a mild behaviour
To work in the mines of High Blantyre he came.

''Twas on that fateful morning without one moment's warning
Two hundred and ten in grim death were laid low
There were fathers and mothers and widows and orphans
Round the stone hill of Blantyre in hundreds did mourn.

And for old aged parents whose sons they loved dearly
From that dreadful disaster will never return.

I know it's not right the dead to be grieved for
No comfort to me this world can restore
For I know he is gone but a short time before me
And soon in the cold grave beside him I'll lie

But the spring will return and the flowers of the summer
Will bloom in their beauty so lovely and fair
And I'll gather snowdrops primroses and daisies
And on my love's grave I'll transplant them there.

And with my tears I'll water those wild flowers
And ferverently pray to the ruler on high
For I know that my days in this world are numbered
And soon in the cold grave beside him I'll lie.