Lay of the Sunflower

by Robert Hunter

I must leave you for a season
Go out logging that hardwood timber
Hardwood timber that grows so low
In the forest of Fennario

Tell me what you need to live
Do you ask that you might own
Keep my blue-eyed hound to guard you
I will make my way alone

I will not return in winter
If I be not back by fall
Seek me when this small sunflower
Grows above the garden wall

Fare ye well, I would not weep
I bid you tend your prayers to keep
Hill by dale now must I go
To the forest of Fennario

Nine-month blew with sleeted rain
And still he came not back again
Summoned she the hound to go
To seek him in Fennario

He came back the fated day
To find his lady gone away
Made haste to follow in her track
Where she could go but not turn back

The blue-eyed hound at her side did bay
While fast her breath did fade away
She cried out, 'Turn, my love, and go
'I would not you see me so'

Fare ye well, I would not weep
Bid you tend your prayers to keep
Hill by dale now I must go
To the forest of Fennario

I shall not turn, I shall not yield
O selfsame serpent sting my heel
That bleeds my lady's blood away
Beside the blue-eyed hound to lay

Angels sing their souls to sleep
Four winds grace their breath to keep
Up above yon garden wall
Stands the sunflower, straight and tall

Fare ye well, I would not weep
Bid you tend your prayers to keep
Hill by dale now I must go
To the forest of Fennario