Words and music RW 1978 As I came down by the weary well Going there to fill my can My fortune there I do declare She took me by the hand The lark gives tongue when summer comes Though time cracks every song As if newborn and as forlorn Twas me that loved her long The willow tree, the willow tree That Christ cleft for his flocks I saw the candles burn in the church And the door of the many locks The ocean roared against the shore In the dark before the day I pulled my coat up round my throat And I turned my face away My curses on the carpenter Who built the doors so strong That she and me might parted be And parted be for long Before I'm old with wandering By the high roads and the low I'll steal his hammer and his nails Till he can build no more I wish that I were in her bed Where I have been before Her arms entwined around my neck And her fine breasts rising so I wish her door was bolted fast With two locks and a chain And she and I inside to lie Safe from the wind and rain Sun and fire and candlelight To all the world belong But the moon pale and the midnight Let these delight the strong Where wild geese fly across the sky Her voice is like the air And the midnight dark is in her eyes And the night is on her hair