Only The Shannon Knows
words & music by Matthew Richards

Based somewhat on a real-life experience.   --Mbo


Prologue:

When I was but a young man, nineteen years old or so
I met the first and only love that I would ever know
The feeling, yes, it laid me low--Oh, it seems so long ago...
And only the Shannon knows
Only the Shannon knows

1.) I saw her in the field one day, at potato digging time,
I'd taken up a job there, for the whole harvest time;
And when she turned her face to me, her long brown hair unfurled,
I saw a beauty that ne'er again will be seen upon this world
Everyday that girl was there, and as I watched here more,
I felt the grip of love on me, which I'd never felt before;
And as the days passed quickly by, the deeper in I fell,
And exactly where it'd take me in the future, none could tell.

Chorus:
That riverland it rolled and flowed, down to the waterside,
As the autumn of my dreams rolled in, and then ebbed like the tide;
Her bonny face still haunts me so--Oh, it seems so long ago...
And only the Shannon knows
Only the Shannon knows

2.) I never knew her name, until one day by chance,
I saw it on a workers list, upon which I had glanced;
And when I had learned it, it was like music to my mind,
And the beauty of it greatly justified who it described.
I asked some folks about her, from round about those lands,
They said she'd 'been in trouble' and had a baby on her hands;
"A baby isn't trouble!" I said, and be it as it might,
A baby is a miracle in any sort of light.

3.) It wasn't really perfect, thought--for it seemed she did not see
The boy who loved her from afar, and adored her quietly;
But one day I flashed a smile at her, and she returned it back to me,
Our eyes me for a moment, then she turned and walked away.
So I thought that I should ask her to a ceilidh in the town,
With dancing, fiddles, pipes, and more, and cider all around;
But when I went to ask her, a tear fell from my eye,
For I saw my bonny lassie in the arms of another boy.

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