A glass of beer (Stephens, set by H. Andrews, J. Wilson) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


The lanky hank of a she in the inn over there 
Nearly killed me for asking the loan of a glass of beer : 
May the devil grip the whey-faced slut by the hair, 
And beat bad manners out of her skin for a year. 

That parboiled imp, with the hardest jaw you will see 
On virtue's path, and a voice that would rasp the dead, 
Came roaring and raging the minute she looked at me, 
Threw me out of the house on the back of my head !
 
If I asked her master he'd give me a cask a day ; 
But she, with the beer at hand, not a gill would arrange ! 
May she marry a ghost and bear him a kitten, and may 
The High King of Glory permit her to get the mange.

Authorship

James Stephens (1882-1950)

Reincarnations

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

Herbert Kennedy Andrews (1904-1965)

James Wilson (1922-)

Irish Songs

Date added to the website: 2009-01-22.

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