Very well, here is what I have for Dan Emmett's "Machine Poetry". This is almost worthy of another thread but I don't think this will carry far. I've heard references to more of this kind of poetry by Emmett but it all ends up being this one song. Adios, Rex

------------------------------------------------------------------

Machine Poetry. - Oh, Ladies All!
from Phil Rice's Banjo Instructor, 1858,
Sung by Swain Buckley. Composed by Dan Emmett
(likely written in the 40s)

I went from here to Baltimore,
De long tail blue an coat what I had on,
I lay my head agin de door,
My heel work a hole right thro' de carpet.
O ladies all! Ah, ah! my dear honey!

Eighteen pounds in de corner ob de fence,
Lynchburg gals hant got no larning,
I danc'd all night wid Fanny on de fence,
Until I run my head against a post.
O ...

Wid Fanny B. I fell in lub.
But darn my skin she gib me de sack,
When Fanny me began to snub,
I felt as tho' I'd been struck wid a hot tater.
(Dis nigger felt as though he'd...)
O ...

My heart was broke, I like to died,
I stuck me head into a pint of water,
To drown myself it was my pride,
When Fanny step'd up and ask'd me in to take a chowder.
O ...