Lyrics

Mellow the moonlight to shine is beginning
 Close by the window young Eileen is spinning
 Bent o'er the fire her blind grandmother sitting
Is groaning and moaning and drowsily knitting

Merrily cheerily noiselessly whirring  
Swings the wheel spins the wheel while the foot's stirring  
Sprightly and lightly and merrily ringing  
Trills the sweet voice of the young maiden singing

Eileen A Chara, I hear someone tapping
 'Tis the ivy there mother against the glass flapping
 Eileen, I surely hear somebody sighing 
'Tis the sound mother dear of the autumn winds dying

Merrily cheerily noiselessly whirring  
Swings the wheel spins the wheel while the foot's stirring  
Sprightly and lightly and merrily ringing  
Trills the sweet voice of the young maiden singing

There's a form at the casement the form of her true love  
And he whispers with face bent I'm waiting for you love 
Get up on the stool through the lattice step lightly
 And we'll rove in the grove while the moon's shining brightly

Merrily cheerily noiselessly whirring  
Swings the wheel spins the wheel while the foot's stirring  
Sprightly and lightly and merrily ringing  
Trills the sweet voice of the young maiden singing

Slower and slower and slower the wheel swings
Lower and lower and lower the reel rings
E’re the reel and the wheel stop their ringing and moving
Through the grove the young lovers by moonlight are roving