Lyrics

From the low white walls and the church's steeple
From our little fields under grass or grain
I'm gone away to the fairy people

I shall not come to the town again

You may see a girl with my face and tresses
You may see one come to my mother's door
Who may speak my words and may wear my dresses
She will not be I, for I come no more

I am gone, gone far, with the fairies roaming
You may ask of me where the herons are

In the open marsh when the snipe are homing
Or when no moon lights nor a single star

On stormy nights when the streams are foaming
And a hint may come of my haunts afar

With the reeds my floor and my roof the gloaming
But I come no more to Ballynar

Ask Father Ryan to read no verses
To call me back, for I am this day
From blessings far, and beyond curses
No heaven shines where we ride away

At speed unthought of in all your stables
With the gods of old and the sons of Finn
With the queens that reigned in the olden fables
And kings that won what a sword can win

You may hear us streaming above your gables
On nights as still as a planet's spin

But never stir from your chairs and tables
To call my name, I shall not come in

For I am gone to the fairy people
Make the most of that other child
Who prays with you by the village steeple
I am gone away to the woods and wild

I am gone away to the open spaces
And whither riding no man may tell
But I shall look upon all your faces
No more in Heaven or Earth or Hell