Come all ye fair and tender ladies Be careful how you court your men They're like the stars on a summer morning They'll first appear and then they're gone How I remember our days of courtin' I met my love in the fading light But now she flies to meet another The day is lonely as the night If I had known before I courted That true love was so hard to win I'd have locked my heart in a box of golden And never opened it again I'll find a place come tomorrow I'll climb some mountain way up high There I'll sit down to weep in sorrow And try to mend my troubled mind Come all ye fair and tender ladies Be careful how you court your men They're like the stars on a summer morning They'll first appear and then they're gone