Come all ye handsome comely maids
That leave near Carlow dwelling
Beware of young men’s flatt’ring tongue
When love to you they’re telling
Beware of the kind words they say,
Be wise and do not mind them,
For if they were talking till they die
They’d leave you all behind them

In Carlow town I lived I own
All free from debt and danger.
Till Colonel Reilly listed me
To join the Wicklow Rangers.
They dressed me up in scarlet red
And they used me very kindly
But still I thought my heart would break
For the girl I left behind me.

I was scarcely fourteen years of age
When I was broken-hearted
For I’m in love these two long years
Since from my love I parted
These maidens wonder how I moan
And bid me not to mind him
That he might have more grief than joy
For leaving me behind him.

So now my love is gone from me
I own I do not blame him
For oftentimes he told to me
That he never would deceive me
But now he’s gone across the foam
Unto some distant island
But in course of time he may come home
To the girl he left behind him.

’Tis not my love I claim I own
All for our separation
That left me wandering far from home
All in a distant station
But when e’er I get my liberty
No man shall ever bind me
I’ll see my native land once more
And the girl I left behind me.