The Girl I Left Behind Me

"The Girl I Left Behind Me" is an English folk song that dates back to the Elizabethan era. It is associated with English soldiers going off to war, and the storyline involves the men marching off in a square: up, across, down, and across back home. After other maneuvers, they return to their partners for a two-hand turn. The song has acquired many sets of lyrics through the years, and it is probably the earliest versio. The Smithsonian Institution has a painting called "The Girl I Left Behind Me," which invokes an Irish ballad that was popular with both the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War. The artist opens the possibility that the young girl is doing more than waiting for the return of her husband. 

The first known printed text of a song with this name appeared in the serial song collection The Charms of Melody, Dublin, Ireland, issue no. 72, printed in Dublin from 1791 and in Exshaw's Magazine (Dublin, September 1794). The earliest known version of the melody was printed about 1810 in Hime's Pocket Book for the German Flute or Violin (Dublin), vol. 3, p. 67, under the title "The Girl I left Behind Me" (National Library of Ireland, Dublin). Theodore Ralph claimed that it was known in America as early as 1650, under the name "Brighton Camp", but there is no evidence to support this assumption, and the only known tune of "Brighton Camp" differed from that of the song in question.
It has many variations and verses, for example "Blyth Camps, Or, the Girl I left behind Me" (1812, Newcastle), "Brighton Camp, or the Girl I left behind Me" (1815, Dublin, from which the "Brighton" title probably came), "Nonesuch," and others.  

A number of Irish-language and English-language songs were set to this tune in Ireland in the 19th century, such as "An Spailpín Fánach" (translated into English as "The Rambling Labourer"), "The Rare Old Mountain Dew" (published New York, 1882) and in the 20th century, such as "Waxie's Dargle".

In England the tune is often known as "Brighton Camp" and is used for Morris dancing. 

The song was popular in the US regular army, who adopted it during the War of 1812 after they heard a British prisoner singing it. The song was used by the army as a marching tune throughout the 19th century.

To download the easy alphanotes sheet music, look here. Enjoy!

Lyrics: 

I'm lonesome since I crossed the hill,
And over the moorland sedgy,
Such heavy thoughts my heart do fill,
Since parting from my Sally.
I seek no more the fine and gay,
For each just does remind me
How sweet the hours I passed away,
With the girl I left behind me.

O ne'er shall I forget that night,
The stars were bright above me,
And gently lent their silvery light
When first she vowed to love me.
But now I'm bound to Brighton camp -
Kind heaven then pray guide me,
And send me safely back again,
To the girl I left behind me.

Her golden hair in ringlets fair,
Her eyes like diamonds shining,
Her slender waist, her heavenly face,
That leaves my heart still pining.
Ye gods above oh hear my prayer,
To my beauteous fair to find me,
And send me safely back again,
to the girl I left behind me.