From The Laurel Song Book: For Advanced Classes in Schools, Academies, Choral Societies, Etc. edited by William Lawrence Tomlins (Boston: C. C. Birchard & Company, 1921), page 174:


WHIP-POOR-WILL
Words, Frederick Manley. Music, W. W. Gilchrist.

1. The vesper sparrow now has sung
His farewell to the day.
The whisp'ring breeze of night has swung
The birds to sleep on bough and spray;
But from the valley and the hill,
There comes a voice, a broken lay,
And "whip-poor-will" it seems to say,
"Poor whippoorwill, poor whippoorwill,
Whippoorwill, whippoorwill, whippoorwill, whippoorwill."

2. A vagabond that shuns the way
His woodland breth'ren keep,
Who trusts to chance from day to day,
Who holds the rights of birdies cheap;
The nests he steals whene'er he will
The rest he breaks when others sleep
With "whip-poor-will" sung loud and deep,
"Poor whippoorwill, poor whippoorwill,
Whippoorwill, whippoorwill, whippoorwill, whippoorwill."

3. The children tuck'd in bed can hear
The plaintive tremulo,
And Billy thinks he says, "O dear,"
Because in daylight he must go
To sleep while others play and trill
And only wake when things are drear.
"I wish," says Bill, "some bird would hear
And play with Will, poor whippoorwill,
Whippoorwill, whippoorwill, whippoorwill, whippoorwill."