My Life So Far:
I met my love one summer's day
Amongst the fields threshing hay
Her bonnet slung about her neck
As homewards afterwards we did trek
Her bonny brown hair
to waist length did fall
A comely wench with wherewithal
She at first was hard to win
But at harvest dance she kicked me on my shin
I winced with pain, I put it on
pretending it hurt more and more anon
It gave me a chance to catch her eye
To make her laugh and made her sigh
Next time we met I knew her worth
Her honest folk were salt of the earth
We courted for three long years
Our yearnings often brought us to tears
We saved as much as we could afford
We wanted to emigrate 'abroad',
America was the place to go
Jobs aplenty and land to grow
and farm upon
And all year round I heard that always
the sun shone
When we had saved up our fare
We booked our passage without a care
But once upon the steamer ship
We were retching and felt homesick
On upper deck we sickly laid
As my wife nursed our three month babe
Eventually we reached New York
Which we couldn't see, as we arrived in the dark
At Ellis Island they checked us three
As nervously I held Thomas on my knee
Inspection over we were led out
So joyous our happiness we wanted to shout
A land of opportunity we believed it all
But had no permanent work until the fall
Our dreams of owning our own farm
Vanished long ago with each early dawn
The children came one after another
Thomas had two sisters, then a brother
Our tenement flat overlooked Central Park
We saw horse drawn carriages and heard morning lark
I worked in a meat factory from dawn to dusk
The only way to get a few dollars to earn a crust
We were best off back in Ireland
Tending sheep for a guinea crown
Good honest labour out in the fresh air
Not working indoors under a gas light flare
My wife and children shall suffer no more
I promised her as I left through the door
I shall get our passage fare home
And down to the bank my feet did roam
To withdraw my savings for that dream farm
It's not worth it if my family came to any harm
Now we are back in old Ireland
And to cattle and pigs I now do tend
I'm renting my old abode
With an acre of land as I did of old
To see the contented smile on my wife's face
I think on it as we say our grace
To give thanks for what we are about to receive
To be back home we are mightily relieved.
Copyright © Theresa Stephens | Year Posted 2014
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