Lyrics as collected by Colm O Lochlainn
By the margin of the ocean
One pleasant evening in the month of June
When all the feathered songsters
Their liquid notes did sweetly tune
‘Twas there I spied a female
And on her features the signs of woe
Conversing with young Bonaparte
Concerning the Bonny Bunch of Roses, O
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Then up speaks young Napoleon
And takes his mother by the hand
Saying: “Mother dear be patient
Until I’m able to take command
And I’ll raise a mighty army
And through tremendous dangers go
And I never will return again
Till I’ve conquered the Bonny Bunch of Roses, O.
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When first you saw great Bonaparte
You fell upon your bended knee
And you asked your father’s life of him
He granted it most manfully
And ’twas then he took his army
And o’er the frozen alps did go,
And he said: “I’ll conquer Moscow
And return for the Bonny Bunch of Roses, O.
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He took three hundred thousand men
And kings likewise to bearhis train,
He was sowell provided for
That he could sweep the world for gain;
But when he came to Moscow,
He was overpowered by sleet and snow
And Moscow all a-blazing,
And he lost the Bonny Bunch of Roses, O.
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Now son, be not too venturesome,
For England is the heart of oak,
And England, Ireland, Scotland,
Their unity shall ne’er be broke;
Remember your brave father
In St Helena, he lies low,
And if you follow after
Beware of the Bonny Bunch of Roses, O.
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“Oh mother, adieu forever,
For now I lie on my dying bed,
If I lived I’d have been clever,
But now I droop my youthful head;
Bu when our bones lie mouldering
And weeping willows o’er us grow
The name of young Napoleon
Will enshrine the Bonny Bunch of Roses, O.
