> Folk Music > Songs > I’ll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree

I’ll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree / Warrior’s Grave

[ Roud 1444 ; G/D 6:1203 ; Henry H155 ; Ballad Index MN1113 ; Wiltshire 506 ; trad.]

Gale Huntington, Lani Herrmann, John Moulden: Sam Henry’s Songs of the People John Ord: Bothy Songs and Ballads

Walter Pardon sang I’ll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree at home in Knapton, Norfolk, to Bill Leader on 12 February 1977. This recording was published in the same year on his Leader album Our Side of the Baulk.

Nuala Kennedy and Eamon O’Leary sang I Will Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree on their 2024 album Hydra. They noted:

We learned this beautiful ballad from one of Newfoundland’s tradition bearers: the powerful singer Anita Best. We visited at her home while on tour there a few years back and while she sang this for us, we fell in love with the melody, the lyrics and Anita!

The song is also in a book loaned to Nuala by Cathal McConnell, Ord’s Bothy Songs and Ballads. John Ord notes that “when Queen Victoria was about seventeen years of age Lord Elphinstone was a handsome young guardsman, and it was… believed the pair had formed a mutual attachment.”

Lyrics

Walter Pardon sings I’ll Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree

I’ll hang my harp on a willow tree
I’ll off to the wars again
My peaceful home has no charms for me
The battlefield no pain
The lady I love will soon be a bride
With a diadem on her brow
O why did she flatter my boyish pride
She’s going to leave me now

She took me away from my warlike lord
And gave me a silken suit
I thought no more of my masters sword
When I played on my masters lute
She seemed to think me a boy above
Her pages of low degree
O had I but loved with a boyish love
It would have been better for me

Then I’ll hide in my heart every selfish care
I’ll flush my cheeks with wine
When smiles await the bridal pair
I’ll hasten to give them mine
I’ll laugh and sing though my heart may bleed
And I’ll walk in the festal train
And if I survive it I’ll mount up my steed
And I’ll off to the wars again

But one golden tress from her hair I’ll twine
Round my helmets sable piume
And on the fields of Palestine
I’ll seek an early doom
And if by the Saracens hand I shall fall
Mid the noble and the brave
One tear from my lady love is all
I’ll ask for a warrior’s grave

Nuala Kennedy and Eamon O’Leary sing I Will Hang My Harp on a Willow Tree

I will hang my harp on a willow tree
And it’s off to the wars again
My peaceful home holds no joy for me
Nor the battlefield no pain

For the lady I love will soon be a bride
With a diadem on her brow
O why would she flatter my boyish pride
She is going to leave me now

She took me away from my warlike lord
She gave me a silken suit
I thought no more of my master’s sword
But I played on my lady’s lute

For she seemed to think me a boy above
All her pages of high degree
And had I but loved with a boyish love
It would have been better for me

Now I’ll hide in my breast every selfish care
And I’ll flush my pale cheeks with wine
And if smiles await the bridal pair
I will hasten to give them mine

I will dance and I’ll sing though my heart might bleed
And I’ll walk in that festive train
And if I survive it I’ll mount my steed
And it’s off to the wars again

One golden tress of her hair I’ll twine
In my helmet’s sable plume
And on the fields of Palestine
I will seek an early doom

And if by some Saracen’s hand I fall
Mid the noble and the brave
A tear from the lady I love is all
I will ask for a warrior’s grave