 | Ballads & Songs |  |
98
TO THE STREET PIANO
I
A LABOURER'S WIFE
All the day I worked and played
When I was a little maid,
Soft and nimble as a mouse,
Living in my father's house.
If I lacked my liberty,
All my thoughts were free as free;
Though my hands were hacked all o'er,
Ah! my heart was never sore.
When I was a little maid,
Soft and nimble as a mouse,
Living in my father's house.
If I lacked my liberty,
All my thoughts were free as free;
Though my hands were hacked all o'er,
Ah! my heart was never sore.
99
Oh! once I had my fling!
I romped at ging-go-ring;
I used to dance and sing,
And play at everything.
I never feared the light;
I shrank from no one's sight;
I saw the world was right;
I always slept at night.
I romped at ging-go-ring;
I used to dance and sing,
And play at everything.
I never feared the light;
I shrank from no one's sight;
I saw the world was right;
I always slept at night.
What a simpleton was I
To go and marry on the sly!
Now I work and never play:
Three pale children all the day
Fight and whine; and Dick, my man,
Is drunk as often as he can.
Ah! my head and bones are sore,
And my heart is hacked all o'er.
To go and marry on the sly!
Now I work and never play:
Three pale children all the day
Fight and whine; and Dick, my man,
Is drunk as often as he can.
Ah! my head and bones are sore,
And my heart is hacked all o'er.
100
Yet, once I had my fling;
I romped at ging-go-ring;
I used to dance and sing,
And play at everything.
Now I fear the light;
I shrink from every sight;
I see there's nothing right;
I hope to die to-night.
I romped at ging-go-ring;
I used to dance and sing,
And play at everything.
Now I fear the light;
I shrink from every sight;
I see there's nothing right;
I hope to die to-night.
II
AFTER THE END
Oh sorry meaning! Oh, wistful sound!
Lilted and shouted, whistled and ground,
Still in my brain you will waltz and beat?
Haunt me no longer, tune of the street!
Standing between the quick and the dead,
I buy you off with a word of dread:
What will it matter who danced at the ball,
Or whose heart broke at the end of all?
Lilted and shouted, whistled and ground,
Still in my brain you will waltz and beat?
Haunt me no longer, tune of the street!
Standing between the quick and the dead,
I buy you off with a word of dread:
101
Or whose heart broke at the end of all?
After the end of all things,
After the years are spent,
After the loom is broken,
After the robe is rent,
Will there be hearts a-beating,
Will friend converse with friend,
Will men and women be lovers,
After the end?
After the years are spent,
After the loom is broken,
After the robe is rent,
Will there be hearts a-beating,
Will friend converse with friend,
Will men and women be lovers,
After the end?
Roses and dew, the stars and the grass,
Kingdoms and homes like fashions must pass,
Seedtime and harvest, sunshine and rain
Cease and be welcomed never again;
But passion and power, courage and truth,
Grace and delight and beauty and youth,
Will they go out like the lights at a ball
With sun, moon and stars, at the end of all?
Kingdoms and homes like fashions must pass,
Seedtime and harvest, sunshine and rain
Cease and be welcomed never again;
But passion and power, courage and truth,
Grace and delight and beauty and youth,
102
With sun, moon and stars, at the end of all?
After the spheral music
Ceases in Heaven's wide room,
After the trump has sounded,
After the crack of doom,
Never will any sweetheart
A loving message send,
Never a blush light the darkness
After the end?
Ceases in Heaven's wide room,
After the trump has sounded,
After the crack of doom,
Never will any sweetheart
A loving message send,
Never a blush light the darkness
After the end?
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