She Moved Through The Fair

My young love said to me, "My mother won't mind, And my father won't slight you, for your lack of kind" And she laid her hand on me, and this she did say, "Oh, it will not be long, love, till our wedding-day"

And she went away from me, and moved through the fair, And fondly I watched her, move here, and move there, And then she went onward, just one star awake, Like the swan in the evening, moves over the lake.

The people were saying No two e'er were wed But one has a sorrow That never was said And she smiled as she passed me With her goods and her gear And that was the last That I saw of my dear

And still in the evening, when the wild birds they do sleep, I heard a soft whisper and the young maiden weep, I heard a soft whisper and to me she did say, "It will not be long, love, til our wedding day."

Last night she came to me, my dead love came in, So softly she came, that her feet made no din, And she laid her hand on me, and this she did say, "Oh, it will not be long, love, till our wedding-day".

Roud 861

Also called "Our Wedding Day", "My Young Love Said to Me", "I Once Had a True Love", "She Moves Through the Fair" or "She Moved Through the Faire"

She Moved Through the Fair was documented by Irish poet Padraic Colum (1881-1972) and was first published by Boosey & Hawkes in "Irish Country Songs" in 1909.

"She Moved Through the Fair" has been found both in Ireland and in Scotland, but pieces of the song were apparently first collected in County Donegal by Longford poet Padraic Colum and the musicologist Herbert Hughes.

In a letter published in The Irish Times in 1970, Padraic Colum stated that he was the author of all but the final verse. He also described how Herbert Hughes collected the tune and then he, Colum, had kept the last verse of a traditional song and written a couple of verses to fit the music.

Notable Versions

• Sinead O’Connor
• Damien Rice and Joan Baez