Waitin' For My Dearie -- A Maiden's Manifesto

While I'm not a huge fan of the musical Brigadoon, starring Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse, I was delighted to discover a musical gem hiding in the heather, as you might say! I think I can safely say that this is the closest any song has come to epitomizing the idea of waiting for the "right one." Which is why I consider this song a "maiden's manifesto" of sorts.

You can hear a sound clip here on Amazon.com -- the soundtrack has the only good musical version of this song that I've heard!

Waitin’ For My Dearie

Fiona:
Many a lassie as ev'ryone knows'll
Try to be married before twenty-five.
So she'll agree to most any proposal.
All he mus' be is a man, an' alive.

I hold a dream an' there's no compromisin'
I know there's one certain laddie for me.
One day he'll come walkin' o'er the horizon:
But should he not, then an old maid I'll be.
Foolish, ye may say.
Foolish I will stay.

Waitin' for my dearie, an' happy am I
to hold my heart till he comes strollin' by.
When he comes, my dearie, one look an' I'll know
That he's the dearie I've been wantin' so.

Though I'll live forty lives till the day he arrives,
I'll not ever, ever grieve.
For my hopes will be high that he'll come strollin' by;
For ye see, I believe

That there's a laddie weary, and wanderin' free,
Who's waitin' for his dearie:
Me!

1st Girl:
What do ye do while ye're waitin' around
For your lad to come your way?

Fiona:
Well, when no one is lookin', ye kneel on the ground,
An' ye pray an' pray an' pray!

2nd Girl:
But when lassies sit an' have no men,
Oh, how long becomes the night.

Fiona:
But I fear the night is longer when the lad's no' right.

Waitin' for my dearie is sweeter to me
Than wooin' any laddie on the lea.

Girls:
Dreamin' of your dearie, an' idlin' the day

Fiona:
That's how I am an' how I'll ever stay.

Though I'll live forty lives till the day he arrives,
I'll not ever, ever grieve.
For my hopes will be high that he'll come strollin' by;
For ye see, I believe

Fiona and Girls:
That there's a laddie weary, an' wanderin' free,
who's waitin' for his dearie:

Fiona:
Me!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Perhaps the only thing that I disagree with is "idlin' the day" while waiting, which doesn't seem like a very good policy! *smile* But I think I can manage disagreeing with three words out of three hundred -- especially when those three hundred are so good!