As I went out one morning, for to take the pleasant air,
The birds were singing in the trees and the weather it was fair,
I sat for a while to rest my back at the foot of shady oak,
And by there came a band of men with their faces black as smoke.
CHORUS:
And it’s rise up, Jock, and sing your song,
For the summer is short and the winter’s long;
Let’s all join hands and form a chain,
‘Till the leaves of springtime bloom again.
Now the first to come in was a soldier, with his rifle in his
Hand,
He’d just returned from fighting in many’s the distant land;
And he’d left his regiment sleeping at the foot of a foreign
Hill,
And he’s returned to England for to kill or to be killed.
(chorus)
And the next to come in was a soldier, he’d just returned from
The sea,
He’d sailed away for seven long years ’till at last he was set
Free;
That evening as the sun went down, he anchored by the shore,
And he’s returned to England for to fight one battle more.
(chorus)
In the middle of the forest, where the blackbirds sweet did sing,
The soldier and the sailor took their place inside a ring;
And when the battle started, they went at it blow by blow,
And when the battle ended down their backs the blood did flow.
(chorus)
Now a chimney-sweep and a doctor, come a-walkin’ arm-in-arm,
And when they saw the bodies there they showed no alarm;
For the doctor he’d been travelling through Italy, France, and
Spain,
And he had in his bag a tiny flask for to ease the ache and pain.
(chorus)
He gave a drink to the soldier, who rose up from the ground,
And he began to sing his song as he passed the bottle round;
And the sailor the same up from the ground, as sure as he was
Born,
And the soldier, the sailor, the doctor and the sweep, they
Danced into the dawn.
(chorus)