From Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads collected by John A. Lomax (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1918), page 200ff. I have adjusted the punctuation and line breaks to suit myself.


A PRISONER FOR LIFE

Fare you well, green fields; soft meadows, adieu!
Rocks and mountains, I depart from you.
Nevermore shall my eyes by your beauties be blest.
Nevermore shall you soothe my sad bosom to rest.

Farewell, little birdies that fly in the sky.
You fly all day long and sing your troubles by.
I am doomed to this cell; I heave a deep sigh.
My heart sinks within me; in anguish I die.

Fare you well, little fishes that glides through the sea.
Your life's all sunshine, all light, and all glee.
Nevermore shall I watch your skill in the wave.
I'll depart from all friends this side of the grave.

What would I give such freedom to share,
To roam at my ease and breathe the fresh air?
I would roam through the cities, through village and dell,
But I never would return to my cold prison cell.

“What's life without liberty?” I ofttimes have said
Of a poor troubled mind that's always in dread.
No sun, moon, and stars can on me now shine.
No change in my danger from daylight till dawn.

Fare you well, kind friends; I am willing to own,
Such a wild outcast never was known.
I'm the downfall of my family, my children, my wife.
God pity and pardon the poor prisoner for life.

- - -
There is a copy of this song in the Digital Tradition that is allegedly from Lomax, but it contains a few errors; I have marked the corrected words with boldface above.

The Internet Archive also has a recording by Jules Allen (see Wikipedia) from 1928 or ‘29 which follows Lomax’s text very closely. Wikipedia suggests that Allen may have cribbed from Lomax, although Allen claimed to have learned his songs while working as a cowboy and rancher.