Why Green Bushes?

Why "Green Bushes?"

A singer all my life, as well as more recently a composer and arranger, and being of Irish heritage, I'm a great fan of the recordings of the great Irish tenor John McCormack. I've learned several Irish folk songs from his singing, and one of my favorites is The Green Bushes. Here are the words:

As I was a walking one morning in May,
To hear the birds whistlin' and see the lambs play,
I spied a young maiden, so sweetly sang she,
down by the green bushes where she chanced to meet me.

"Oh why are you lightin' here, pretty maid?"
"I'm waitin' for my true love," softly she said.
"Shall I be your sweetheart, and will you agree
To leave your own true love and follow with me?"

"I'll give you fine beavers and fine silken gowns,
I'll give you fine petticoats flounced to the ground.
I'll buy you rich jewels and live but for thee
If you'll leave your true love and follow with me."

"I want none of your beavers nor fine silken hose,
for I'm not so poor as to marry for clothes,
But if you'll be constant and true unto me,
I'll leave me own true love and follow with thee."

Now let us be goin' kind sir, if you please,
Oh, let us be goin' from under these trees,
For yonder is coming my true love, I see,
down by the green bushes where he thinks to meet me."

When he came to those bushes and found she had gone
He sighed very deeply, he sighed all alone,
"She's gone with another, and forsaken me,
Oh adieu you green bushes, where she vowed to meet me."

Download a WAV file of John McCormack singing the first verse.