Tom Lemin (Quiller-Couch, set by C. Stanford) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


As I was crossing Tanner's Hill
From this town to the next one,
I peered across the windowsill
And spied the gashly sexton.
Ho! Ho! Who's there within?
'Tis I, the ghost of Tom Lemin!'
Ho! Ho! Why sit ye so?
I sit for love of a fair widow
Long and long a-languishing,
And leary lean a-longing.

Go down the town to yon green door,
Right opposite the pump as is,
And then enquire for Moll Treloar
That keeps The Goat and Compasses.
Ho! Ho! She've married nine
And now's my turn
To call her mine.
Ho! Ho! They're all bereft
And Tom Lemin's the last man left.

The fair widow she sat within
A-scouring of her pewter;
"I come," says I, from Tom Lemin,
that is your patient suitor."
Ho! Ho! Come drink, my friend,
To ghosts I cannot condescend.
Ho! Ho! Come taste my brew
And then, young man, I'll marry you.
Long and long a-languishing
And leary lean a-longing.

Tho' marriage is a mild design
Ordained for human comfort,
Yet seeing she'd a-married nine
It seemed I'd better run for't.
Ho! Ho! No use to run,
She've married me
So sure's a gun!
Ho! Ho! By strength of will
And Tom Lemin's left up the hill,
Long and long a-languishing
And leary lean a-longing.

Input by Ted Perry

Authorship

Sir Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch (1863-1944)

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

Sir Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)

Added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.

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