Spinning Wheel

Mellow the moonlight to shine is beginning

Close by the window young Eileen is spinning

Bent o’er the reel her blind grandmother sitting

Is moaning and crooning and drowsily knitting

O merrily, cheerily, noisily whirring

Spins the wheel, swings 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"

“Eileen, I surely hear somebody sighing"

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

O merrily, cheerily, noisily whirring

Spins the wheel, swings 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

He whispers with face bent, “I'm waiting for you, love

Get up from the stool, through the lattice step lightly

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

O merrily, cheerily, noisily whirring

Spins the wheel, swings the wheel while the foot’s stirring

Sprightly and lightly and airily ringing

Sounds the sweet voice of the young maiden singing

The maid shakes her head, to her lips lays her fingers

Leaps up from the stool, longs to go and yet lingers

A frightened glance turns to her drowsy grandmother

Puts one foot on the stool, spins the wheel with the other

O lazily, hazily, noiselessly whirring

Lower and slower is heard the reel’s whirring

Noiseless and light through the lattice above her

The maid steps, then leaps to the arms of her lover

Slower and slower and slower the wheel turns

Lower and lower, and lower the reel rings

Ere the wheel and the reel stop their spinning and moving

Through the grove the young lovers by moonlight are roving