Lyrics & Knowledge Personal Pages Record Shop Auction Links Radio & Media Kids Membership Help
The Mudcat Cafesj



User Name Thread Name Subject Posted
Wolfgang Hell Lyr Add: The Reaphook and Sickle (5) ADD: The reaphook and sickle 05 Mar 98


The Albion band (with Martin Carthy) sings this song. The slightly different version here comes from R. Palmer, Everyman's Book of English Country songs. I have also added a part of his notes.

The Reaphook and Sickle

1. Come all you lads and lassies, together let us go
into some pleasant cornfield our courage for to show,
with the reaphook and the sickle so well we clear the land,
the farmer says, ‘Well done, my lads, here’s liquor at your command.’

2. By daylight in the morning when birds so sweetly sing -
They are such charming creatures they make the valley ring -
We will reap and scrape together till Phoebus do go down,
With the good old leathern bottle and beer that is so brown.

3 Then in comes lovely Nancy the corn all for to lay,
She is my charming creature, I must begin to pray;
See how she gathers it, binds it, she folds it in her arms,
Then gives it to some waggoner to fill a farmer's barns.

4 Now harvest's done and ended, the corn secure from harm,
All for to go to market, boys, we must thresh in the barn.
Here's a health to all you farmers, likewise to all You men,
I wish You health and happiness till harvest comes again.

reaphook: heavy variety of sickle.

Phoebus: the sun

Harvesting was both arduous and joyful Richard Jefferies in an essay, 'Walks in the Wheatfields' (published in Field and Hedgerow, 1889), paints a harrowing picture of the reapers: 'The breast-bone was burned black, and their arms, tough as ash, seemed encased in leather. They grew visibly thinner in the harvest-field, and shrunk together - all flesh disappearing, and nothing but sinew and muscle remaining....’


Post to this Thread -

Back to the Main Forum Page

By clicking on the User Name, you will requery the forum for that user. You will see everything that he or she has posted with that Mudcat name.

By clicking on the Thread Name, you will be sent to the Forum on that thread as if you selected it from the main Mudcat Forum page.

By clicking on the Subject, you will also go to the thread as if you selected it from the original Forum page, but also go directly to that particular message.

By clicking on the Date (Posted), you will dig out every message posted that day.

Try it all, you will see.