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.—SWEET ENGLAND. |
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1 As I was a-walking one morning in spring, To hear the larks whistle, the colley-bird sing, 1 heard a fair maiden a-making her moan, O alas! I'm a stranger away from my home.
2 0 where is your country 1 gladly would know, And what mean the tears, that so freely do flow? What made you to wander so far from your home, And causes lament in a strange land alone ?
3 I came from sweet England, with mother and dad ; They thought in America all might be had,
Of gold and of silver and acres galore, And never need hunger in poverty more.
4 But alas, for sweet England ! my father is dead, My mother could earn but a dollar for bread,
And alack! the white wings of the ships as they fly Across the blue sea, and leave me here to die!
5 Now mother is dead, I am left all alone;
If I were in England no more would I roam.
I've an aunt who is grey, and she loves me amain,
Oh, will not some ship take me homeward again ?
6 She has got a neat cottage, a rose at her door, Her pans and her dishes I'd scrub, and her floor, I'd kiss her old cheeks, and I'd nurse her in pain, And thank God I was back in sweet England again. |
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