Oh the Geographic Ballads are the rage From the Tin Pan Alley troubadours they flow To the phonographic record and the stage, Where you hear about the chap who wants to go "Back to Dear Old Tennessee, where a Welcome waits for me, Back to"—any other place you chance to know, But in all the lyric throng I have never heard a song Which concerns itself with Ashtabula, O. That's a town that shouldn't be upon the shelf, So I'll write a little song for it myself: CHORUS Take me back to Ashtabula, far from dancers Hula Hula Where the life is, as a rule, a Trifle slow; Where the wintry breeze is cool, a Fact that brings to Ashtabula An unusually heavy fall of snow. Take me back, oh don't forsake me, I won't go unless you take me, And you'll have to pay my fare to make me go, But I've kept my word and you'll a- Gree I've sung of Ashtabula And have done my bit for Ashtabula, O. I might sing a lot of verses on the theme Of a girl in Ashtabula whom I knew, I might muse about my childhood's happy dream As the writers of a ballad often do, But I'll pass them up, I guess, for I might as well confess That the rhymes to Ashtabula are but few. And I'll have to set it down that I've never seen the town, Though that needn't keep my song from being true! So just join in on the chorus, let her go! And we'll give a boost to Ashtabula, O. CHORUS | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...HOMAGE TO SEXTUS PROPERTIUS: 10 by EZRA POUND THE MAIZE by WILLIAM WHITEMAN FOSDICK THE SONG OF SHERMAN'S ARMY by CHARLES GRAHAM HALPINE CHILD OF THE ROMANS by CARL SANDBURG THE PRAIRIE-GRASS DIVIDING by WALT WHITMAN THE PREACHER by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER |