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by Winifred Mary Letts (1882 - 1972)

The fair
Language: English 
Oh! We're off to the fair now the lot of us together,
The yellow sunlight ev'rywhere - sure that's the lovely weather!
And amn't I six foot high today with pride and joy of heart,
The way I'm driving to the fair in a fine new ass-and-cart?

The pigs are screeching merrily at all the jolts and lurches,
The wonder of the world we are from here until the Churches;
And the speckly hen, poor decent bird, has lost her wits with scare,
It's well you know the noise she makes that we're going to the fair.

The quality will stare when they see the way we're driving,
The polis stand in wonderment to watch the cart arriving;
And the people that's stravagin' about the market square
Will be kilt with envy when ourselves come driving to the fair.

But the best time of all is the time the evening closes,
With a wind blowing from the south is sweet with wild hedge roses.
And we're counting out our money and proud and glad of heart
The way we're driving home again in our fine new ass-and-cart.

Please note: this text, provided here for educational and research use, is in the public domain in Canada and the U.S., but it may still be copyright in other legal jurisdictions. The LiederNet Archive makes no guarantee that the above text is public domain in your country. Please consult your country's copyright statutes or a qualified IP attorney to verify whether a certain text is in the public domain in your country or if downloading or distributing a copy constitutes fair use. The LiederNet Archive assumes no legal responsibility or liability for the copyright compliance of third parties.

Text Authorship:

  • by Winifred Mary Letts (1882 - 1972) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

  • by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), as Michael Flood, "The fair", c1920 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
  • by Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir (1852 - 1924), "The fair", op. 139 no. 6 (1913), published 1913 [ voice and piano ], from A Fire of Turf, no. 6 [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this page: Ted Perry

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 186

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