Down in the willow garden
Where me and my love did meet
As we sat a-courtin’
My love fell off to sleep

I’d had a bottle of Burgundy wine
My love, she did not know
So I poisoned that dear little girl
Down on the banks below

I drew a dagger through her
It was a bloody knife
I threw her in the river
Which was a dreadful sight

I thought my father told me
That money would set me free
If I would murder that dear little girl
Whose name was Rose Connelly

Father stands at his cabin door
Watching with tear-dimmed eyes
His only son who soon shall walk
To yonder scaffold rise

My race is run, my day is done
The scaffold waits for me
For I did murder that dear little girl
Whose name was Rose Connelly