Country Girl

Country girl, country girl
I beheld her in meadowland
Bowing and reaping and singing a refrain
Oh, what a melancholy strain
The valley echoed with a ring
No nightingale could ever sing
So plaintively as the country girl

I was spellbound and curious
Why such a sad song?
Perhaps love passed her by
No hopeful rainbow in the sky
Maybe she held a memory dear
A happiness of yesteryear
In solitude cried the country girl

Came the hour to travel on
Sadness befell me
A sorrow filled my heart
A longing never to depart
The music in my soul I bore
Long after it was heard no more
And memories of a country girl
Whose love I’ll never know