Two Songs Rewritten For The Tune's Sake

I



My Paistin Finn is my sole desire,

And I am shrunken to skin and bone,

For all my heart has had for its hire

Is what I can whistle alone and alone.

Oro, oro!

Tomorrow night I will break down the door.



What is the good of a man and he

Alone and alone, with a speckled shin?

I would that I drank with my love on my knee

Between two barrels at the inn.

Oro, oro!

To-morrow night I will break down the door.



Alone and alone nine nights I lay

Between two bushes under the rain;

I thought to have whistled her down that

I whistled and whistled and whistled in vain.

Oro, oro!

To-morrow night I will break down the door.



From The Pot of Broth

Tune: Paistin Finn



II



I would that I were an old beggar

Rolling a blind pearl eye,

For he cannot see my lady

Go gallivanting by;



A dreary, dreepy beggar

Without a friend on the earth

But a thieving rascally cur -

O a beggar blind from his birth;



Or anything else but a rhymer

Without a thing in his head

But rhymes for a beautiful lady,

He rhyming alone in his bed.



From The Player Queen