ght… Watch for me by moonlight… I’ll come to thee by moonlight… Though hell should bar the way… [Verse 4 | male vocal] Dark in the old inn-yard where the stable timbers lay, Tim the ostler listened till his face went grey; For he loved the landlord’s daughter with a silent, bitter pain, And he heard the robber whisper of gold and roads again. [Verse 5 | duet | intimate] One kiss, my bonny sweetheart, I ride for gold tonight, But I’ll be back with morning, before the morning light; Yet if they press me sharply and hunt me till the day, Then watch the road by moonlight, though hell should bar the way. [Chorus | duet | stronger | forward motion] Look for me by moonlight, Watch for me by moonlight, I’ll come to thee by moonlight, Though hell should bar the way. [Instrumental Break | fiddle lead | bodhrán gallop | low whistle drone] [Verse 6 | male vocal] He did not come at dawning, he did not come at noon, And out of the tawny sunset before the rising moon, When the road was a gypsy’s ribbon looping o’er the moor, Red-coated men came marching up to the old inn-door. [Verse 7 | female vocal | restrained tension] They bound the landlord’s daughter to the foot of her bed, They gagged her and they mocked her with the words they said; They set a loaded musket with its muzzle at her breast, And watched the moonlit roadway where her love would crest. [Verse 8 | female vocal | quiet intensity] She strained against the bindings till her fingers bled, The hours crawled like centuries with fear and dread; Till cold upon the stroke of midnight, silent as the night, Her trembling finger found the trigger by moonlight. [Chorus | duet | restrained | hushed | ominous] Look for me by moonlight, Watch for me by moonlight, I’ll come to thee by moonlight, Though hell should bar the way. [Instrumental Break | tense | sparse fiddle | distant bodhrán pulse] [Thin texture, rising suspense] [Verse 9 | duet | dramatic peak] Tlot-tlot came the hoofbeats ringing sharp and clear, Down the ribbon of moonlight they thundered near; She stood upright in silence and fired to warn his way, And shattered her own breast in the moon’s pale ray. [Verse 10 | male vocal | aftermath] He turned and spurred to westward, not knowing who had died, Till the dawn revealed the truth they could not hide; They shot him down by noonday on the bare and bloodied plain, And left him lying lifeless where the white roads wane. [Verse 11 | duet | mythic coda | softened] And still on winter’s nights when the wind is in the trees, When the moon is a galleon on the storm-dark seas, Two shadows ride together where the old roads run, The highwayman and his true love, forever bound as one. [Final Chorus | duet | resolved | gentle harmonies] Look for me by moonlight, Watch for me by moonlight, I’ll come to thee by moonlight, Though hell should bar the way. Look for me by moonlight, Watch for me by moonlight, I’ll come to thee by moonlight, Though hell should bar the way Though hell should bar the way … [Outro | instrumental | fiddle reprise | slow fade] (16 bars) [end]
