Yew Tree Songtext
von Reeling Rogues

A mile from Pentcaitland
On the road to the sea
Stands a Yew Tree
A thousand years old
And the old women swear
By the grey of their hair
That it knows what
The future will hold
For the shadows of Scotland
Stand ′round it
'Mid the kail and the corn
And the kye
All the hopes and the fears
Of a thousand long years
Under the Lothian sky
My Bonnie Yew Tree
Tell me what did you see


Did you look through the haze
O′ the long summer days
To the south
And the far English border
'Mid the bonnets of steel
On Flodden's far field
Did they march by your side
In good order
Did you ask them the price
′O their glory
When you heard
The great slaughter begin
For the dust of their bones
Would rise up from the stones
To give tears
To the eyes of the wind
My Bonnie Yew Tree
Tell me what did you see

Not once did you speak
For the poor and the weak
When the moss troopers
Lay in your shade
To count out the plunder
And hide from the thunder
And share out the spoils
Of their raid
But you saw the smiles
Of the gentry
And the laughter of lairds
At their gains
When the poor hunt the poor
Across mountain and moor
The rich man can keep
Them in chains
My Bonnie Yew Tree
Tell me what did you see


Did you no′ think to tell
When John Knox himself
Preached under your
Branches so black
To the poor common folk
Who would lift up the yoke
O' the bishops and priests
From their backs
But you knew the bargain
He sold them
And freedom
Was only one part
For the price of their souls
Was a gospel so cold
It would freeze up
The joy in their hearts
My Bonnie Yew Tree
Tell me what did you see

And I thought as I stood
And laid hands on your wood
That it might be a kindness
To fell you
One kiss of the ax
You′d be free from the racks
Of the sad bloody tales
We tell you
Then a wee bird
Flew from your branches
And sung out
As never before
And the words of the song
Were a thousand years long
And to learn them's a
Long thousand more
My Bonnie Yew Tree
Tell me what can you see
My Bonnie Yew Tree
Tell me what can you see