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 crooning and moaning and drowsily knitting 

Chorus:
 Merrily, cheerily, noisily, whirring
 Swings the wheel, spins the wheel while the foot's stirring
 Sprightly and lightly and airily ringing
 Sounds the sweet voice of the young maiden singing 

 "Eileen, a chara, I hear someone tapping"
 "'Tis the ivy, dear mother, against the glass flapping"
 "Eily, I surely hear somebody sighing"
 "'Tis the sound, mother dear, of the autumn winds dying" 

Chorus

 "What's that noise that I hear at the window I wonder?"
 "'Tis the little birds chirping, the holly-bush under"
 "What makes you be pushing and moving your stool on?
 And singing all wrong that old song of Coolin?" 

Chorus

 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" 

Chorus

 The maid shakes her head, on her lips lays her fingers
 Steals up from the seat, longs to go and yet lingers
 A frightened glance turns to her drowsy grandmother
 Puts one foot on the stool, spins the wheel with the other 

Chorus

 Lazily, easily, swings now the wheel round
 Slowly and lowly is heard now the reel's sound
 Noiseless and light to the lattice above her
 The maid steps, then leaps to the arms of her lover 

 Slower, and slower, and slower the wheel swings
 Lower, and lower, and lower the reel rings
 Ere the reel and the wheel stop their spinning and moving
 Through the grove the young lovers by moonlight are roving