Ann Breen - The Spinning Wheel

Mellow the moonlight to shine is beginning

Close by the window young Eileen is spinning

Bent o'er the fire her blind grandmother sitting

Is crooning and moaning and drowsily knitting

Merrily, cheerily, noiselessly whirring

Swings the wheel, spins the wheel, while the foot's stirring

Sprightly and lightly and airily ringing

Sounds the sweet voice of the young maiden singing

"Eileen, a chara, I hear someone tapping"

"Tis the ivy, dear mother, against the glass flapping"

"Eily, I surely hear somebody sighing"

"Tis the sound, mother dear, of the autumn winds dying"

Merrily, cheerily, noiselessly whirring

Swings the wheel, spins the wheel, while the foot's stirring

Sprightly and lightly and airily ringing

Sounds the sweet voice of the young maiden singing

There's a form at the casement, the form of her true love

And he whispers with face bent: "I'm waiting for you, love"

"Get up on the stool, through the lattice step lightly

And we'll rove in the grove while the moon's shining brightly"

Merrily, cheerily, noiselessly whirring

Swings the wheel, spins the wheel, while the foot's stirring

Sprightly and lightly and airily ringing

Sounds the sweet voice of the young maiden singing

Merrily, cheerily, noiselessly whirring

Swings the wheel, spins the wheel, while the foot's stirring

Sprightly and lightly and airily ringing

Sounds the sweet voice of the young maiden singing