The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #56256 Message #879506
Posted By: Liz the Squeak
31-Jan-03 - 05:57 PM
Thread Name: meaning? 'My father would have paid the smart'
Subject: Lyr Add: THE RECRUITED COLLIERS' LAMENT
It should be in the Mudcat songbook rather than the DT, but snce you asked...
THE RECRUITED COLLIERS' LAMENT: by Liz Draper
[Tune: Four Loom Weaver.]
I was once a collier with a wife new wed,
My name was once Jimmy, and she were Susanne
But now I'm just Private, or Matey, or Man
And I'm wishing I'd never left home.
Well I thought the dust of the coal pit were bad,
I thought it were hotter than any could bear
I reckoned it terrible working down there,
But I'm thinking it different now.
I have to admit I was fond of my drink,
And sometimes I had just a couple too far
But it's weeks since I saw any sign of a jar,
And it's glad that I am it's that way.
For the drinking and rousing took me from my home
The sergeants, they saw I was out of my mind,
They flattered and pampered and acted so kind,
And recruited I was for the wars.
They marched me to London, and gave me a gun.
They beat me, half starved me, and taught me to kill.
Then sent me to Spain, though it might have been Hell.
And they told me to die for my King.
The heat made the pit seem like heaven above.
The dust and the flies nearly drove me insane,
We starved in the mountains, and burned on the plain,
And the cannons, they never stopped once.
So now here I lie, in some nameless ravine,
So far from the coal pit, I'll not see again,
No riches or glory for me here in Spain,
And Susannah a widow will be.