The Irish Stranger - Andy M. Stewart

Pity the fate of a poor Irish stranger

That wanders so far from his home

That sighs for protection from want, woe, and danger

That knows not from which way for to roam

Yet I’ll never return to Hibernia’s green bowers

For tyranny tramples the sweetest of flowers

That once gave me comfort in loneliest hoursâ€"

Now they are gone I shall ne’er see them more

With wonder I gazed on yon lofty building

As in grandeur I rose from its lord

But soon I beheld my fair garden yielding

The choicest of fruit for his foe

But, where is my father’s lone cottage of clay

Wherein I' ve spent many a long day

Alas !

has his lordship conniv’d it away?

Yes, it is gone, I shall never see it more

When nature was seen in the sloe bush and bramble

All smiling in beautiful bloom

Over the fields without danger, I often

Did ramble amidst their perfume;

I have wranged through the woods where the gay feather’d

Throng

Joyfully sung their loud echoing songâ€"

These days then of summer passed sweetly along

Now they’re goneâ€"I shall ne’er see them more !

When the sloe and the berries hung ripe on the bushes

I have gathered them off without harmâ€"

I have gone to the field and shorn the green rushes

Preparing for winter’s cold storm !

Along with my friends telling tales of delight

Beguiling the hours of the long winter’s night

Those days gave me pleasureâ€"I could them invite;

Now they’re gone, I shall ne’er see them more

Oh, Erin !

oh, Erin !

it grieves me to ponder

The wrongs of thy injurned isle !

Of thy sons may a thousand from home do wander

On shores far away an exile !

But give me the power to cross the main

Calumbia might yield me some shelter from pain

I am only lamenting whilst here I remain

For the boys I shall ne’er see again