The tune is well known as a slow air (same title). The verses date to the 18th century and are in the 'Aisling' a dream or vision) tradition; Ireland is depicted as a beautiful woman seeking freedom from foreign oppression. Sources of text: verses 1& 2, "Jimmy Crowley's Irish Songbook", Cork, Ireland: Mercier, 1986 and Seán & Mánus Ó Baoill, "Ceolta Gael", Mercier, first ed. 1975; and verse 3, "Cuisle an Cheoil", an Roinn Oideachas [Dept of Education], Baile Atha Cliath (Dublin), 1976

JEANIE'S BLACK EE.

The sun raise so rosey, the grey hills adorning,
    Light sprung the lavrock and mounted sae high;
When true to the tryst o' blythe May's dewy morning,
    My Jeanie cam linking out owre the green lea.
        To mark her impatience
        I crap 'mang the brakens,
    Aft, aft to the kend gate she turn'd her black ee;
        The lying down dowylie,
        Sigh'd by eht willow tree,
'Ha me mohatel na dousku me.'*

Saft thro' the green birks I sta' to my jewel,
    Streik'd on sprin's carpet aneath the saugh tree;
'Think na, dear lassie, thy Willie's been cruel--'
    'Ha me mohatel na dousku me.'
        Wi' love's warm sensations
        I've mark'd your impatience,
    Lang hid 'mang the brakens I watch'd your black ee;
        You're no sleeping, pawkie Jean,
        Open thy lovely een---'
'Ha me mohatel na dousku me.'

'Bright is the whin's bloom, ilk green knowe adorning,
    Sweet is the primrose bespangl'd wi' dew;
Yonder comes Peggy to welcome May morning,
    Dark wave her haffet-locks o'er her white brow.
        O, light, light she's dancing deen,
        On the smooth gowany green,
    Barefit and kilted half up to her knee;
        While Jeanie is sleeping still,
        I'll rin and sport my fill.'
'I was asleep, and ye've waken'd me.'

        'I'll rin and whirl her round;
        Jeanie is sleeping sound;
Kiss her and clasp her fast, nae ane can see;
        Sweet, sweet's her hinny mou!'--
        'Will, I'm no sleeping now;
I was asleep, but ye wakened me.'
         Laughing till like to drap,
        Swith to my Jean I lap,
Kiss'd her ripe roses and bless'd her black ee;
        And ay since whane'er we met,
        Sing, for the sound is sweet,
'Ha me mohatel na dousku me.'

* 'I am asleep and don't waken me.'

[I don't know what is wrong with that last verse. I've seen Hector MacNeill credited with the song here, but haven't verified it. The burden line here is the title of the tune. The tune was known under various phonetic Gaelic spellings, both Scots and Irish, and under the English title of "Past twelve/ one O'Clock on a Cold Frosty Morning". I haven't found the song from which the English title is taken. The strange title "Thamma Hulla" for Thomas Moore's song 'Like the bright lamp,' in the third issue of Irish Melodies [1810] is from Smollet Holden's 'A Collection of Old Established Irish Quick and Slow Tunes', c 1805. The earliest known copy of the tune is in a Scots manuscript, c 1710. Many Scots and Irish copies of the tune are listed in the Irish Tunes Index at www.erols.com/olsonw (as "I am asleep"). According to Nicholas Carolan in the 1986 reprint edition of the Neals' 'A Collection of the Most Celebrated Irish Tunes', extant texts are not as old as the tune.]