Mary of the Wild Moor

Laws #P21

Other titles or closely related songs: Mary Died at Her Father's Door

On a cold winter's night

As the winds blew across the wild moor

Poor Mary came wandering home with her child

Till she came to her own father's door

 

Father, dear father she cried

Come down and open the door

Or the child in my arms will perish and die

From the winds that blow across the wild moor

 

But the old man was deaf to her cries

Not a sound of her voice reached his ear

While the watchdog did howl and the village bell tolled

The winds blew across the wild moor

 

Oh, how the old man must have felt

When he came to the door the next morn?

And he found Mary dead, but the child yet alive

Close pressed in its dead mother's arms

 

Ah, frenzied he tore his grey hairs

While the tears down his cheeks they did pour

Saying, "This cold winter's night, she has perished and died

By the winds that blew across the wild moor"

 

The old man in grief, pined away

And the babe to its mother went soon

And no one, they say, has lived there to this day

And the cottage is left to the wilds

 

And the villagers point out the spot

Where the ivy grows over the door

Saying, "There Mary died, once a fair village bride

From the winds that blew across the wild moor (x2)

Feeling a little blue today? Sing this song to cheer yourself up!