The Old Road to Paradise/When I Was a Young Girl

by Margaret Widdemer

WHEN I WAS A YOUNG GIRL

(A Song of Old Ballads)

When I was a young girl, all in a green arbor,
 When I was a young girl in Springtimes gone by
All the long days I went singing and smiling,
Down by the roses the sweet days beguiling,
 Love in the arbor and love in the sky . . .
When I was a young girl, a young girl, a young girl,
 When I was a young girl, how happy was I!

Oh, the long days I must sit at my sampler,
 Oh, the slow way that the still time would go!
I longed to be running across the bright heather,
"Off with the silk gown and on with the leather,
 Following the raggle-taggle gypsies, oh!"
When I was a young girl, a young girl, a young girl,
 When I was a young girl, a long time ago!

When I was a young girl in days that were golden,
 When I was a young girl, and life had no smart,
All the world seemed a place for my playing,
Full of great lovers to come to me, saying,
 "Madam, I give you the keys of my heart . . ."
When I was a young girl, a young girl, a young girl,
 When I was a young girl, and dreaming apart!

When I was a young girl, I dreamed of my lover,
 A tall cavalier who should whisper me low,
"Love, on your lips are red roses a-blowing,
I am your true love, and fast is time going
 Am I your true love? Oh, say yes or no!"
When I was a young girl, a young girl, a young girl—
 When I was a young girl, a long time ago!

When I was a young girl there came my true lover,
 Swiftly I knew him in glad days gone by;
Never a sword or a lovelock or feather,
But oh, at his touch 'twas our hearts came together,
 Love in the arbor and love in the sky . . .
When I was a young girl, a young girl, a young girl,
 When I was a young girl, how happy was I!