The Irish Peasant Girl

    D
She lived beside the Anner,
       G               D
At the foot of Slievna-man,
  G   A          Bm
A gentle peasant girl,
          G             A
With mild eyes like the dawn;
    D         G    D
Her lips were dewy rosebuds;
    G        A      Bm
Her teeth of pearls rare;
      G                   F#m
And a snow-drift 'neath a beechen bough
    G        A         D
Her neck and nut-brown hair

[Verse 2]
    D
How pleasant was to meet her
   G               D
On Sunday when the bell
    G       A        Bm
Was filling with its mellow tone
     G               A
Lone wood and grassy dell,
    D       G         D
And when at eve young maidens
            G     A    Bm
Strayed the river bank along,
    G                    F#m
The widow's brown-haired daughter,
    G         A      D
Was loveliest of the throng

[Chorus]
  A                        F#m
O brave, brave Irish girls-
        G            D
We well may call you brave!-
         Bm                F#m
Sure the least of all your perils
       G            A
Is the stormy ocean wave,
         A                       F#m
When you leave our quiet valleys,
    G                    D
And cross the Atlantic's foam
   Bm                  F#m
To hoard your hard-won earnings,
        Bm       A       D
For the helpless ones at home.

[Verse 3]
       D
"Write word to my own dear mother,
          G              D
Say we'll meet with God above;
    G      A       Bm
And tell my little brothers,
  G                A
I send them all my love;
        D      G    D
May the angels ever guide them
         G     A        Bm
Is their dying sister's prayer"-
    G           F#m
And folded in a letter
      G        A         D
Was a braid of nut-brown hair

[Verse 4]
   D
Ah cold and well-nigh callous,
     G               D
This weary heart has grown,
        G        A          Bm
For thy helpless fate, dear Ireland
        G             A
And for sorrows of my own
      D        G        D
Yet a tear, my eye will moisten
        G     A      Bm
When by Anner side I stray,
        G           F#m
For the lily of the mountain foot,
     G        A    D
That withered far away

[Chorus]
  A                        F#m
O brave, brave Irish girls-
        G            D
We well may call you brave!-
         Bm                F#m
Sure the least of all your perils
       G            A
Is the stormy ocean wave,
         A                       F#m
When you leave our quiet valleys,
    G                    D
And cross the Atlantic's foam
   Bm                  F#m
To hoard your hard-won earnings,
        Bm       A       D
For the helpless ones at home.