Mellow the moonlight to shine is beginning,
Close by the window young Eileen is Spinning;
Bent o'er the fire her blind grandmother, sitting,
Is crooning, and moaning, and drowsily knitting:
Merrily, cheerily, noiselessly whirring,
Swings the wheel, spins the wheel, while the foot's
stirring;
Sprightly, and brightly, and airily ringing
Thrills the sweet voice of the young maiden singing.
"Eileen, achara, I hear someone tapping."
"Tis the ivy, dear mother, against the glass flapping."
"Eily, I surely hear somebody sighihg,"
"Tis the sound, mother dear, of the summer wind dying."
Merrily, cheerily, noiselessly whirring,
Swings the wheel, spins the wheel, while the foot's
stirring;
Sprightly, and brightly, and airily ringing
Thrills the sweet voice of the young maiden singing.
There's a form at the casement - the form of her true
love -
And he whispers, with face bent, "I'm waiting for you,
love;
Get up on the stool, through the lattice step lightly,
We'll rove in the grove while the moon's shining
brightly."
Merrily, cheerily, noiselessly whirring,
Swings the wheel, spins the wheel, while the foot's
stirring;
Sprightly, and brightly, and airily ringing
Thrills the sweet voice of the young maiden singing.
Slower... and slower... and slower the wheel swings
Lower... and lower... and lower the reel rings
Ere the reel and the wheel stop their ringing and
moving
Through the grove the young lovers by moonlight are
roving.