(Verse 1) The fields were green in early spring Down by the stone-walled lane A farmer knelt beside the earth And prayed for summer rain The children laughed along the rows Where the brown soil turned to gold But deep beneath the quiet ground A darker seed took hold (Chorus) Oh the harvest, the harvest Turned black beneath the sky What once fed a nation Now left the people dry Oh the harvest, the harvest The land could not provide And the hunger came creeping Like a cold Atlantic tide (Verse 2) The leaves turned dark on every hill From Cork to Donegal The potatoes rotted in the ground And the hunger touched them all The landlord’s grain rolled down the road To ships upon the bay While empty bowls in cabin homes Waited night and day (Chorus) Oh the harvest, the harvest Turned black beneath the sky What once fed a nation Now left the people dry Oh the harvest, the harvest The fields no longer kind And the wind across the furrows Carried sorrow on its mind (Verse 3) A mother stood beside the shore With tears she could not hide Her son was bound for Boston town Across the ocean wide The ship pulled slow into the mist Through waves so dark and gray A million dreams left Ireland’s fields And slowly sailed away (Chorus) Oh the harvest, the harvest Turned black beneath the rain What once fed the children Now only fed the pain Oh the harvest, the harvest The land fell cold and still And the ghosts of silent villages Drift across the hill (Bridge) Years will pass and grass will grow Where empty cottages stand But the stories ride the western wind Across the battered land Of a crop that failed a hungry world And the hearts it drove apart Of Ireland’s broken harvest And a people’s stubborn heart (Final Chorus) Oh the harvest, the harvest Though the fields have healed again Still the echoes of that hunger Whisper through the glen Oh the harvest, the harvest The earth remembers still The year the soil of Ireland Could not feed its children’s will
