The Bonny Boy- Isabel Sutherland (Edin) 1959
[From The Peter Kennedy collection online. Recorded by Peter Kennedy on 12-12-1959 at the Cecil Sharp House, London.
http://sounds.bl.uk/World-and-traditional-music/Peter-Kennedy-Collection/025M-C0604X0708XX-0001V0
Isabel Sutherland (1921-1988) was a Scottish folk singer from Edinburgh who besides being a great singer was a collector. I'm not sure of her source but the text does not appear to be taken from earlier collected version-- although it is similar to many versions.
R. Matteson 2016]
The Bonny Boy- Sung by Isabel Sutherland. Recorded by Peter Kennedy on 12-12-1959 at the Cecil Sharp House, London.
The trees are growing green and the grass is growing green,
And many the long hours was the night that I have all seen
It is a cruel and bitter night that I must lie alone,
Ah, the bonny boy is young but he's growing.
O father, dear father, I fear you've done me wrong,
To go and get me married me to one who is so young;
His is but sixteen years, and I am twenty-one,
Oh, the bonny boy is young but a-growing.
O daughter, dear daughter, I did nothing wrong,
For to go and get married to one who is so young.
He will be a match for you when I am dead and gone,
Oh, the bonny boy is young but he's growing.
O father, dear father, I'll tell you what I'll do
I'll send the boy to collage another year or two,
And all around his college cap I'll bind the ribbon blue
For to let the ladies know he is married.
A year ago or so I passed the college wall
And all the young colleginers are playing at the ball
I spied one among them the fairest of them all,
The bonny boy is young but he's growing.
At the age of sixteen, he were a married man,
At the age of seventeen, the father of a son.
At the age of nineteen on his grave the grass grows green,
Cruel death has put an end to his growing.
I will buy my love a shroud of the ornamental brown,
And as they are stitching it the tears they will fall down,
Once I had a bonny boy but now he's lying low,
And I'll nurse his bonny boy while he's growing.