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My Father's Servant Boy
The song 'My Father's Servant Boy'(as referenced in the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places, by May Blair.Once you have read the poem, you can return to the Irelandseye extract from 'Hiring Fairs and Market Places', which quotes this poem:
MY FATHER'S SERVANT BOY
Ye lovers all, both great and small, attend unto my theme,There’s none on earth can pity me but those that feel the pain;
I live between Dungannon and the town of Aughnacloy,
But now I’m in America with my father’s servant boy.
Where is the man that will or can a farmer’s son despise,
His bread to win he does begin before the sun does rise;
My love and I are Adam’s seed, I never will deny,
There in none on earth I love as well as my father’s servant boy.
My parents they wished to have me wed unto a gentleman,
And in the church we were to meet and join in wedlock’s bands;
The night before I stole from them unto a village nigh,
Where there I met my own true love, my father’s servant boy.
I took my love along with me, I could do nothing more;
I bid adieu to all my friends and to the Shamrock Shore;
To Belfast town we both went down where the Ackythere did lie,
And in that ship I sailed away with my father’s servant boy.
When we reached the other side, our money was all gone;
Some time we were supported by a friendly Irishman;
Till gentlemen from Ireland did give us both employ;
Two pounds a week I do receive with my father’s servant boy.
I left my parents lonesome: in sorrow they did weep;
Day and night condoling without a wink of sleep;
Until I sent a letter to the town of Aughnacloy,
Saying, ‘I am in America with my father’s servant boy.’
They sent an answer straight to me in Philadelphia town,
Saying if I would come home again I would get five hundred pound.
But I was joined in wedlock, which crowned my life with joy,
And until I die I’ll ne’er deceive my father’s servant boy.
This is the news that I did send from Philadelphia town,
That where they were worth a shilling I was worth a pound;
With pleasure and contentment I never will deny,
I am living in America with my father’s servant boy.
– Author unknown
Return to the County Tyrone extract from the Appletree Press title Hiring Fairs and Market Places, by May Blair.
