Dobbin's Flowery Vale

Dobbin's Flowery Vale – anonymous Irish folktale

One morning fair as Phoebus bright his radiant charms display'd
When Flora in her verdant garb the fragrant plains array'd,
As I did rove throughout each grove, no care did me assail,
When a pair I spied by a riverside in Dobbin's Flowery Vale.

As I sat down them to behold beneath a spreading tree
The limpid streams that gently roll'd convey'd these words to me:
"Farewell, sweet maid" the youth he said, "For now I must set sail,
I'll bid adieu to sweet Armagh and Dobbin's Flowery Vale."

"Forbear these thoughts and cruel words that wound a bleeding heart,
For is it true that we're met here, alas, so soon to part?
Must I alone here sigh and moan, to none my grief reveal,
But here lament my cause to vent in Dobbin's Flowery Vale?"

"Unwilling I am to part with you, no longer I can stay,
For Love and Freedom cry "Pursue", those words I must obey
In foreign lands where Freedom smiles, or by the earth conceal'd
I will come home no more to roam from Dobbin's Flowery Vale."

Its mutual love together drew both in a kind embrace,
While tears like rosy drops of dew did trickle down her face.
She strove in vain him to detain, but while she did bewail
He bid adieu and I withdrew from Dobbin's Flowery Vale.