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Home  »  The English Poets  »  Song: ‘Child, is thy father dead?’

Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. IV. The Nineteenth Century: Wordsworth to Rossetti

Ebenezer Elliott (1781–1849)

Song: ‘Child, is thy father dead?’

CHILD, is thy father dead?

Father is gone!

Why did they tax his bread?

God’s will be done!

Mother has sold her bed:

Better to die than wed!

Where shall she lay her head?

Home we have none!

Father clammed thrice a week—

God’s will be done!

Long for work did he seek,

Work he found none.

Tears on his hollow cheek

Told what no tongue could speak:

Why did his master break?

God’s will be done!

Doctor said air was best—

Food we had none;

Father, with panting breast,

Groaned to be gone:

Now he is with the blest—

Mother says death is best!

We have no place of rest—

Yes, we have one!