Janie Rothfield and Allan Carr - The Candlelight

The Candlelight
Words adapted by Allan Carr from poem by Marion Angus published in 1922
Tune by Jane Rothfield

Mary Forbes she weaves in the candlelight,
With the straw stacked in the barn.
Round and around her fingers slim,
She twists the fleecy yarn.
The Candlelight, the candlelight,
The shadows on the floor.
And the wrinkled leaves of the rowan tree,
rustling behind the door.

What do you think on, my bonny lad
Wi’ your fiddle on your knee?
On the days I counted the lambs, mother
By the bonnie green links o’ the Dee.
And the candlelight, the candlelight
The wind that sparks the peat.
And a sleety rain on the windowpane,
Like the patter O’ birdies feet.

Come play to me where Gadie rins (rins is runs, the Gadie is the river)
Or a reel with a heartsome tune.
But he minds when he danced at the Castleton, (Minds is remembers/The Castleton is like the Grange Hall)
In the long clear nights of June.
O the Castleton, the Castleton
The lass with the tawny shoon (Shoes)
That danced with him at the Castleton,
By the silver light of the moon.

Mary Forbes she weaves in the candlelight,
Her fiddler plays in the gloom.
And the dowiest airs in all the world, (dowiest is saddest)
Go round and round that room.
And Mary blesses the candlelight,
The witching watching flame.
And the eerie night and the candlelight,
That keeps her bairn at hame.