Oft of a pleasant morning, sunshine all adorning
I heard a horn give warning with the birds' mellow call
Badgers flee before us, woodcooks startle o'er us
Guns in a ringing chorus amid the echoes all
The fox runs high and higher, horsemen shouting nigher
The maid in mourning by her geese that are all gone
Now they fell the wild woods, farewell home of childhood
Oh Sean o Duibhir a ghleanna, your day is o'er
For it is my sorrow sorest, woe the falling forest
The north wind brings me no rest, and death is in the sky
My faithful hound tied tightly, never sporting brightly
Who would make a child laugh lightly with the tears in his eye
The antlered, noble-hearted stags are never parted
Never chased nor started from the whinny hills
Oh if peace came but the small way I would journey down on Galway
And leave, though not for always, my Erin of the ills
My woe and ruin through sinless death undoing
Came not o'er the strewing of all my bright hopes
How oft on sunny morning I would watch the spring returning
The autumn leaves are falling and the dew on woodland slopes
Now my land is a plunder, far my friends asunder
I must hide me under branch or bramble screen
And if soon I cannot save me by flight from foes who crave me
Oh Sean o Duibhir a ghleanna, death will come between
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