Lyr Add: I've Oft Been Asked

Subject: Lyr Add: I'VE OFT BEEN ASKED
From: *#1 PEASANT*
Date: 24 Jun 10 - 12:39 PM

I'VE OFT BEEN ASKED.
AIR—"The Battle and the Breeze."

I've oft been asked by curious men,
Whose spleen I well could scan,
To give a reason why and when
I am an Orangeman;
And as from such folks e'er to shrink,
It never was my plan,
I give them reasons, fair, I think,
Why I'm an Orangeman.

When Luther's lightnings crushed the Pope,
A shrine he did erect,
And holy men of grace and hope
Its temple did perfect.
And as our order, link by link,
With Protestants began,
That is a reason, fair, I think,
Why I'm an Orangeman.

When William's cannon roar'd aloud—
Its lightnings winged by fate,
Then rose our Constitution proud,
In Sixteen-eighty-eight;
For it, upon destruction's brink,
Our sires led on the van,
And that's a reason, fair, I think,
Why I'm an Orangeman.

To guard that Faith, which, like the sun,
Is not of this world's light;
To guard that Constitution won
At Boyne's immortal fight;
To purify from Popery's sink,
To check rebellion's clan;
All these are reasons, fair, I think,
Why I'm an Orangeman.

To meet such hearts as here unite,
While joyous minutes pass,
And hail the hour whose festal light,
Now sparkles in our glass;
To them to fill, and fill and drink,
Tho' life were but a span,
That is a reason, fair, I think,
Why I'm an Orangeman.

—The Orange Melodist, Original Orange Songs, With Occasional Verses and an Appendix, Containing Copious Explanatory Notes, Brother William Archer, Oldbrige lodge 597 (Dublin: Brother J. Kirkwood, Printer, 13, Upper Ormond-quay, 1852).