I Must Away

I must away from you my sweetheart, and all my kin I leave behind

I’m wanted now as an outlaw, a home I now go for to find

On the Yankee shore I will wander where hunger pangs they are unknown

The people of our cursed land, there they are welcome as their own

In future years I’ll return love, I’ll come unchanged for you once more

Shure how could I e’er forget you, to leave you grieves my young heart’s core

My mother’s keens, her lamentations, how she tore on her grey hair

The moans, the groans of my aged father, I’m sure no mortal soul could bear

God curse the landlord and the bailiff, they’re every poor man’s bitter foe

Cast out I roam from my forefather’s home, the seed of hate in my heart did grow

Happy was I to live my life love, just as nature she had willed

In my cabin down by the river to work the ground my father tilled

I could not live again at home love, for now she is such a stricken land

The tyrant has her by the throat, he’ll ne’er release his blood-stained hand

There’s not an inch of Irish soil that’s not trod now but by slaves

They die unkeened and then they’re flung like dogs into a silent grave

Don’t worry love for me no more, times have passed I wished to die

And find my way to the churchyard green, where all of my forefathers lie

For when the body it is broke and sleep does call beneath the dust

I still pray on for better days, in God alone I’ll place my trust

As I go away from you love, these painful words they’re hard to speak

The last fond embrace I’m taking now, my lips are pressed to your sweet cheek

The last minute does draw close, the sails they wave in the wind

Oh hold me close to your heart, I’ll leave you soon behind