If I should die

If I should die

Original Text
Ben King's Verse, ed. Nixon Waterman, introduction by John McGovern, biography by Opie Read (Chicago: Forbes, 1899): 1. PS 2169 K8 1899 Robarts Library.
1If I should die to-night
2    And you should come to my cold corpse and say,
3    Weeping and heartsick o'er my lifeless clay --
4    If I should die to-night,
5And you should come in deepest grief and woe --
6    And say: "Here's that ten dollars that I owe,"
7    I might arise in my large white cravat
8    And say, "What's that?"
9If I should die to-night
10    And you should come to my cold corpse and kneel,
11    Clasping my bier to show the grief you feel,
12    I say, if I should die to-night
13And you should come to me, and there and then
14    Just even hint 'bout payin' me that ten,
15    I might arise the while,
16    But I'd drop dead again.
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO 1998.