Pentangle - The Bonny Boy lyrics

The trees they grow so high and the leaves they grow so green The day is past and gone, my love, that you and I have seen It's a cold winter's night, my love, when I must bide alone For my bonny boy is young but a-growing As I was out a-walking by yonder garden wall I saw four and twenty boys a-playing at the ball I asked for my own true love but they'd not let him come For my bonny boy is young, but a-growing 'O father, dearest father, you've done to me much wrong You've tied me to a boy when you know he is too young.' 'O daughter, dearest daughter, if you'll wait a little while A lady you will be, while he's growing 'We'll send your love to college, all for a year or two And then perhaps in time the boy will be a man for you I'll buy you white ribbons to tie about his waist To let the ladies know that he's married' So early in the morning at the dawning of the day They went out into the hayfield to have some sport and play And all they did there, she never would declare But she never more complained of his growing And at the age of sixteen he was a married man And at the age of seventeen she brought to him a son And at the age of eighteen the gra** grew over him And that soon put an end to his growing I'll make my love a shroud of the Holland so fine And every stitch I put in it, the tears come a-trickeling down For once I had my own true love, but now I've ne'er one But I'll watch o'er his son while he's growing