Beadle's Dime Song Book No. 1

Beadle's Dime Song Book No. 1
Various

Beadle's Dime Song Book No. 1 / A Collection of New and Popular Comic and Sentimental Songs

Gentle Annie

Copied by permission of Firth, Pond & Co., 547 Broadway, owners of the copyright

Thou wilt come no more, gentle Annie —
Like a flower thy spirit did depart;
Thou art gone, alas! like the many,
That have bloom’d in the summer of my heart.

CHORUS

Shall we never more behold thee,
Never hear thy winning voice again,
When the spring time comes, gentle Annie,
When the wild flowers are scattered o’er the plain?

We have roam’d and loved ’mid the bowers,
When thy downy cheeks were in bloom;
Now I stand alone ’mid the flowers,
While they mingle their perfumes o’er thy tomb.

Chorus.– Shall we never more, &c

Ah! the hours grow sad while I ponder
Near the silent spot where thou art laid,
And my heart bows down when I wander
By the streams and the meadows where we stray’d.

Chorus.– Shall we never more, &c

Nelly Gray

There’s a low green valley on the old Kentucky shore,
There I’ve whiled many happy hours away,
A sitting and a singing by the little cottage door
Where lived my darling Nelly Gray.

CHORUS

Oh, my poor Nelly Gray, they have taken you away,
And I’ll never see my darling any more,
I’m sitting by the river and I’m weeping all the day,
For you’ve gone from old Kentucky shore.

When the moon had climb’d the mountain, and the stars were shining too,
Then I’d take my darling Nelly Gray,
And we’d float down the river in my little light canoe —
While my banjo sweetly I would play.
Oh, my poor Nelly Gray, &c.

One night I went to see her, but she’s gone, the neighbors say,
The white man bound her with his chain —
They have taken her to Georgia for to wear her life away,
As she toils in the cotton and the cane.
Oh, my poor Nelly Gray, &c.

My canoe is under water, and my banjo is unstrung,
I’m tired of living any more:
My eyes shall look downward, and my songs shall be unsung
While I stay on old Kentucky shore.
Oh, my poor Nelly Gray, &c.

My eyes are getting blinded and I can not see my way,
Hark! there’s somebody knocking at the door:
Oh, I hear the angels calling, and I see my Nelly Gray;
Farewell to the old Kentucky shore.

CHORUS

Oh, my Nelly Gray, up in heaven there they say
That they’ll never take you from me any more:
I’m a coming, coming, coming, as the angels clear the way,
Farewell to the old Kentucky shore.

Poor Old Slave

Copied by permission of Russell & Tolman, 291 Washington St., Boston, owners of the copyright

’Tis just one year ago to-day,
That I remember well,
I sat down by poor Nelly’s side
A story she did tell;
’Twas about a poor, unhappy slave
That lived for many a year;
But now he’s dead and in his grave,
No master does he fear.

Chorus.– The poor old slave has gone to rest,
We know that he is free;
Disturb him not, but let him rest,
Way down in Tennessee.

She took my arm, we walk’d along
Into an open field,
And here she paused to breathe awhile,