In Trouble

In Trouble

Original Text
Edith Nesbit, Ballads and Lyrics of Socialism 1883-1908 (London: The Fabian Society, and A. C. Fifield, 1908), pp. 76-77. B595 B35 Fisher Library.
1It's all for nothing: I've lost im now.
2    I suppose it ad to be:
3But oh I never thought it of im,
4    Nor e never thought it of me.
5And all for a kiss on your evening out
6    An a field where the grass was down ...
7And e as gone to God-knows-where,
8    And I may go on the town.
9The worst of all was the thing e said
10    The night that e went away:
11He said e'd a married me right enough
12    If I adn't a been so gay.
13Me, gay! When I'd cried, and I'd asked him not,
14    But e said e loved me so;
15An whatever e wanted seemed right to me ...
16    An how was a girl to know?
17Well, the river is deep, and drowned folk sleep sound,
18    An it might be the best to do;
19But when he made me a light-o-love
20    He made me a mother too.
21I've ad enough sin to last my time,
22    If twas sin as I got it by,
23But it aint no sin to stand by his kid
24    An work for it till I die.
25But oh the long days and the death-long nights
26    When I feel it move and turn,
27And cry alone in my single bed
28    And count what a girl can earn
29To buy the baby the bits of things
30    He ought to a bought, by rights;
31And wonder whether e thinks of Us ...
32    And if e sleeps sound o' nights.

Notes

1] im: him. Back to Line
2] ad: had. Back to Line
6] An: And. Back to Line
7] as: has. Back to Line
8] go on the town: live by begging (this predates the welfare state). Back to Line
11] e'd a: he would have. Back to Line
12] adn't a been so gay: had not have been so keen on sex. Back to Line
19] a light-o-love: a promiscuous woman. Back to Line
22] twas: it was. Back to Line
23] aint: is not. Back to Line
RPO poem Editors
Ian Lancashire
RPO Edition
RPO (1998).
Rhyme
ababcdcd