I have travell'd the country both early and late, My travels were many, my sorrows were great, I courted a fair maid who did me disdain, She aften deny'd me, but I'll try her again. I own that her parents they were very rich, As I am not their equal it troubles me much, But will you leave father and mother also, And thro' the wise world with your darling love go. O Johnny, dear, Johnny, love, that will not do, For to leave my parents, love, and go with you, To leave my relations to mourn for my sake, And thro' the wide world to follow a rake. Some says I am rakish, some says I am wild, Some says the fair damsels I often beguile, For that is a falsehood, and that I will prove, I'm guilty of nothing, but innocent love. I'm sorry, I'm sorry, my fortune's so bad, That I have been slighted by any false maid, 'Tis false information that I may think on, It makes me lament, love, for what I have done. My love she is proper, though not very tall, Her decent behavior it far exceeds all, She has my heart bound, that it cannot get free, She has too many sweethearts for to marry me. Farewell to this country, I bid it adieu, Wherever I go, love, I will think on you, For sleeping, or waking, you're still in my mind, To sail to America is my whole design. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...KATHMANDU GUEST HOUSE by KAREN SWENSON THE OLD ENEMY by SARA TEASDALE BLIZZARD by WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS THE INEVITABLE by SARAH KNOWLES BOLTON THE JESTER'S SERMON by GEORGE WALTER THORNBURY TANGLED TRAILS by GLADYS NAOMI ARNOLD THE FIRST AND THE LAST by HORATIO (HORATIUS) BONAR INTRODUCTION TO A LADY'S ALBUM by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD |