Judy Collins Bonnie Boy Is Young song lyrics

The trees, they grow tall, the grass is growing green

Many a cold and winter night that I alone have been

It is a cold and cruel night when I must lie alone

The bonny boy is young but he is growing

Oh, father, dear father, I think you done me wrong

To go and get me married to one who is so young

For he is only sixteen years and I am twenty-one

The bonny boy is young but he's growing

Oh, daughter, dear daughter, I did not do you wrong

For I have married you to a rich man's son

And he shall be a match for thee, when I am dead and gone

He is young but he is daily growing

Oh, father, dear father, I'll tell you what I'll do

I'll send the boy to college for another year or two

And all around his college cap, I'll bind a ribbon blue

For, to let the ladies know that he's married

A year, it went by and I passed the college wall

And saw the young collegians a-playing at the ball

Amidst them was my own true love, the fairest of them all

He was young but he was daily growing

At the age of sixteen, he was a married man

And at the age of seventeen, he was the father of a son

At the age of eighteen, his grave had all grown green

And the death put an end to his growing

I'll make my love, a shroud of ornamental brown

And whilst I am a making it, the tears they will run down

For once I had my own love, now he's lying low

And I'll nurse his bonny boy while he's growing