"ANON"

There's no name on the stone I sleep under today There's no book that can tell of my time But you know me so well when you sing roundelay For you're singing my tune and my rhyme I am "Anon", you know me that way I had something to say about life in my day So I made a song and somewhere the sound of it goes round and round, to be lost and then found And that is the way that life is That is the way it is with songs It was in the alehouse, I would sing with the rest then I made up a tune of my own And a full harvest moon put the words in my head As I trudged 'cross the fields to my home When I sang it next day, my friends asked me how Did I find my own song in the blade of my plough So I asked in return how the stonemason saw A sweet face in the stone on the old quarry floo They asked "Is that the way that it is?" I said "That is the way it is for me."

So they learned every word and they sang every note Till my song was a work of renown And within a six month I heard boys from the school Whistling my tune in the town And I smiled when I heard what came out of the sky coming now from a child as he quickly ran by Would it pass from that child, when as father he'd sing To a child of his own? Who'd believe such a thing? But that is the way that life is That is the way it is with time

It was 20 years gone, when our parson came home From a journey he'd made far away He shook my hand hard, said the inn where he'd stayed Had some men who sang there every day And he'd listened with joy as one, with a bow sang the song that I'd found in the blade of my plough So he told them my name,but they said that my song Was as old as the hills, and our parson was wrong I asked "Is that the way that life is?" He said, "That is the way it is my son."

So I planted and ploughed till my bones bowed and bent I made up no more verses to sing And it seemed that my life had been wasted and spent on the curses my hard day would bring Soon death came to call with a voice that cried "Now!" And the song that I'd found in the blade of my plough Leaped from my heart as I journeyed on And I knew it would live even though I was gone And that is the way that it is That is the way it is for us all

There's no names on the stones we sleep under today There's no books that can tell of our times But you know us so well when you sing roundelay For your singing our tunes and our rhymes We are "Anon", you know us that way We had something to say about life in our day So we made our songs, and somewhere the sound of them Goes round and round to be lost and then found And that is the way that life is That is the way it is with songs