A Lapful of Nuts

Whene'er I see soft hazel eyes
And nut-brown curls,
I think of those bright days I spent
Among the Limerick girls;
When up through Cratla woods I went,
Nutting with thee;
And we plucked the glossy clustering fruit
From many a bending tree.

Beneath the hazel boughs we sat,
Thou, love, and I,
And the gathered nuts lay in thy lap,
Beneath thy downcast eye;
But little we thought of the store we'd won
I, love, or thou;
For our hearts were full, and we dare not own
The love that's spoken now.

O, there's wars for willing hearts in Spain,
And high Germanic!
And I'll come back, erelong, again.
With knightly fame and fee:
And I'll come back, if I ever come back,
Faithful to thee,
That sat with thy white lap full of nuts
Beneath the hazel-tree.