Lyr Add: The Yang-tsi-kiang

Subject: Lyr Add: THE YANG-TSI-KIANG
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 09 Aug 08 - 08:30 PM

Lyr. Add: THE YANG-TSI-KIANG
Lyrics Thomas Davidson, music Alison Hay Dunlop

1
My name is Polly Hill'
And I've got a lover Bill,
But he's caused me many a pang,
For his reg'ment got the rout,
And he's gone to the right about,
To the Yang-tsi-kiang.

Chorus-
To the Yang Yang Yang Yang Yang-tsi-kiang,
To the Yang Yang Yang-tsi-kiang!

2
Oh! the war had broken out,
Though I don't know what about,
But they that make the wars go hang!
For he's gone with thousands ten
To fight the Chinamen
On the Yang-tsi-kiang.
3
Oh! it's five years passed away,
Till it fell on a day,
As I sat by the door and sang,
That a soldier stopped and said,
"O, your lover Bill is dead
On the Yang-tsi-kiang.
4
"It was in a tea-tree glen
That we met the Chinamen,
And one of the rogues let bang,
Which laid poor William low,
With his toe to the foe,
On the Yang-tsi-kiang.
5
"O," says poor Bill to me,
'Take this little sprig of tea,
And tell Poll where it sprang.'
Now that was all he said,
When his head dropped like lead
On the Yang-tsi-kiang.
6
"So here I hand to thee
This little sprig of tea,
'Twas by poor Bill's grave that it sprang;
You may keep it if you will,
As a souvenir of Bill
And the Yang-tsi-kiang."
7
"Now, my soldier-boy," says I,
"Is there green in my eye?
(Pray, pardon me the use of slang,)
For I'm still your Polly Hill,
And you're welcome home, my Bill,
From the Yang-tsi-kiang."

Green in my eye- Old slang, ironic; 'do you take me for a fool?' is the current use.

I was reminded of this song by the "Once there lived a Chinaman" thread, although there is no connection; I remembered my grandfather sang it. I googled and found that it was a student song, and found it in the "Scottish Student's Song Book," 1892, 3rd. ed., pp. 106-107, with musical score. My grandfather was born in the U. S., of English ancestry, no idea where he got it, perhaps at school.

Thomas Davidson, 1838-1870, was a Scottish poet and minister.