Tune: John Anderson My Jo
First printed in Thomson, 1799.
How cruel are the Parents
Who riches only prize,
And to the wealthy booby
Poor Woman sacrifice:
5 Meanwhile the hapless Daughter
Has but a choice of strife;
To shun a tyrant Father’s hate
Become a wretched Wife. —
The ravening hawk pursuing,
10 The trembling dove thus flies,
To shun impending ruin
Awhile her pinion tries;
Till of escape despairing,
No shelter or retreat,
15 She trusts the ruthless Falconer
And drops beneath his feet. —
This was, as the poet indicates in his first draft title: ‘Altered from an Old English Song’. It was sent to Thomson on 9th May, 1795. It is only partly reworked from the traditional lyric.