| When I was a wee thing, I heard my mother say
 | 
| That I was a rambler, and easy led astray.
 | 
| Before that I would work, I would rather sport and play
 | 
| With my Johnny on the banks for red roses.
 | 
| On the banks of red roses, my love and I sat down.
 | 
| He took out his tuning books to play his love a tune.
 | 
| In the middle of the tune, his love got up and cried,
 | 
| Saying, «Johnny, Johnny, will you go on and leave me.»
 | 
| And they walked, and they talked, till they came up to a cave,
 | 
| Where the night before, her Johnny, he’d been digging at her grave.
 | 
| Where the night before, her Johnny, he’d been digging at her grave.
 | 
| On the bonny, bonny banks of red roses.
 | 
| «Oh Johnny, dearest Johnny, that grave’s not meant for me.»
 | 
| «Oh yes, my dearest Molly, that your bridal bed shall be.
 | 
| Oh yes, my dearest Molly, that your bridal bed shall be.»
 | 
| And he’s laid her down low on red roses.
 | 
| That night while walking home, his heart was full of fear,
 | 
| And everyone he met, he thought it was his dear.
 | 
| And everyone he met, he thought it was his dear
 | 
| He had slain on the banks of red roses. |