Oh, a wan cloud was drawn o'er the dim weeping dawn
As to Shannon's side I return'd at last
And the heart in my breast for the girl I lov'd best
Was beating, ah, beating, loud and fast!
While the doubts and the fears of the long aching years
Seem'd mingling their voices with the moaning flood
Till full in my path, like a wild water wrath
My true love's shadow lamenting stood.

But the sudden sun kiss'd the cold, cruel mist
Into dancing show'rs of diamond dew
And the dark flowing stream laugh'd back to his beam
And the lark soared aloft in the blue
While no phantom of night but a form of delight
Ran with arms outspread to her darling boy
And the girl I love best on my wild throbbing breast
Hid her thousand treasures with cry of joy.
Repeat: