Poor Lonely Widow

Collected by Bob Copper from a book left by John Johnson (right), 1865-1943, in Fittleworth, Sussex in about 1954: see Chapter Nine, pp. 83-9, of Songs and Southern Breezes for the details; and the appendix for these words. The photo of John Johnson at his garden date is credited to George Garland of Petworth (West Sussex). Click on the photo for a much larger one (also by George Garland, and which might have been taken around 1940) of John Johnson and his wife on their golden wedding anniversary.

If you'll give attention the truth I will mention,
My trials and my troubles to you I'll explain;
I'm a poor lonely widow, I'm left unprotected
But I'm ready and willing to marry again.
Three husbands I've had but they're all dead and buried,
The first one he died rather strange I'll confess.

Chorus

I can dance I can sing I'm as good now as ever,
Fond of my whiskey and good in a row,
Just forty-five, both witty and clever,
I wonder if anyone will marry me now.
When I was young all the boys they came courting,
If I went to the canteen for whiskey or gin,
It was for the same thing that I had a longing
To get fresh all the week sure I thought it no sin.
Poor Tim did the same thing, he was fond of his whiskey,
I can't sleep at night sure I miss him somehow,
As since he has died I feel quite broken-hearted,
I wonder if anyone will marry me now.
Chorus

Six months after Tim this wide world seemed departed,
I got wed to one Barney, a cobbler by trade,
When I think how he died I was again broken-hearted
I wished once again, boys, that I was a maid.
For we both took to drinking and then we got fighting
And with his lapstone he struck me, I vow;
I up with the poker and settled my joker,
I wonder if anyone will marry me now.
Chorus

Come all you young men and don't keep me waiting,
For I feel like a fish that is out of the sea,
If I don't soon get married it's true what I'm stating
I shall go wrong if some young man don't marry me.
I've got a blind pig, an old bull and a cow too
I've got some old cocks and old hens too, I'll vow,
And there's many a good tune played on an old fiddle,
I wonder if anyone will marry me now.
Chorus

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