Hard Times Come Again No More
Written by Stephen Foster
A parlour song by American Composer Stephen Foster (1854). Despite being an incredibly sucessful composer and heralded as "the father of American music", he passed at 37 with 38 cents to his name.
LYRICS
CHORUS
‘Tis the song, the sigh of the weary
"Hard Times, Hard Times, come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door
Oh! Hard Times, come again no more"
While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay
There are frail forms fainting at the door:
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say –
Oh! Hard times, come again no more.
CHORUS
Let us pause in life’s pleasures and count its many tears
While we all sup sorrow with the poor:
There’s a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.
CHORUS
There’s a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away
With a worn heart whose better days are o’er:
Though her voice would be merry, ’tis sighing all the day –
Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.
CHORUS
‘Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,
‘Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore,
‘Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave, –
Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.
CHORUS x 2
