The Little Vagabond | Dear Mother, dear Mother, the Church is cold

The Little Vagabond

Language: English

Dear Mother, dear Mother, the Church is cold,
But the Ale-house is healthy & pleasant & warm;
Besides I can tell where I am used well,
Such usage in heaven will never do well.

But if at the Church they would give us some Ale,
And a pleasant fire our souls to regale,
We'd sing and we'd pray all the live-long day,
Nor ever once wish from the Church to stray.

Then the Parson might preach, & drink, & sing,
And we'd be as happy as birds in the spring;
And modest dame Lurch, who is always at Church,
Would not have bandy children, nor fasting, nor birch.

And God, like a father rejoicing to see
His children as pleasant and happy as he,
Would have no more quarrel with the Devil or the Barrel,
But kiss him, & give him both drink and apparel.

Text Authorship:

by William Blake (1757 - 1827), "The Little Vagabond", appears in Songs of Innocence and Experience, in Songs of Experience, no. 17, first published 1794 [author's text checked 1 time 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 George Antheil (1900 - 1959), "The Little Vagabond", 1948, from Songs of Experience, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
by Rodney Ash (b. 1931), "The Little Vagabond", 1972, from Songs of Experience, no. 7 [sung text not yet checked]
by Ronald A. Beckett , "The Little Vagabond", 2015 [ voice and piano ], from Eight Poems of William Blake, no. 8 [sung text not yet checked]
by William Bolcom (b. 1938), "The Little Vagabond", 1956-81 [ solo voices, chorus, and orchestra ], from Songs of Experience, Volume One, no. 12 [sung text not yet checked]
by John Charlton Crawford (b. 1931), "The Little Vagabond", published 1965 [ bass and string quartet ], from Three Songs of Experience, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
by Norman Curtis (b. 1933), "The Little Vagabond", c1959 [ voice and piano ], from William Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, no. 30 [sung text not yet checked]
by Ole Carsten Green (b. 1922), "The Little Vagabond", op. 27a no. 17 (1973) [ voice and piano ], from Songs of Experience, no. 17 [sung text not yet checked]
by Walter Kemp (b. 1938), "The Little Vagabond", 1957-8, published c1967 [ soprano, tenor, and SATB chorus a cappella ], from Five Poems of William Blake, no. 4, Don Mills, Ont. : BMI Canada (Berandol) [sung text not yet checked]
by David Krane (b. 1953), "The Little Vagabond", c1972 [ soprano and piano ], from Songs of Innocence and of Experience, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
by Otto Luening (1900 - 1996), "The Little Vagabond", 1980, first performed 1980 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Martin Edward Fallas Shaw (1875 - 1958), "The Little Vagabond", published 1923 [ voice and piano ], London, J. B. Cramer & Co. [sung text not yet checked]
by Øistein Sommerfeldt (1919 - 1994), "The Little Vagabond", op. 53 no. 3 (1979), published c1982 [ high voice, guitar, flute (or recorder), and piano ], from From William Blake's Poetry, no. 3, Oslo : Norsk Musikforlag [sung text not yet checked]
by John Austin Sykes (1909 - 1962), "The Little Vagabond" [ baritone and piano ], from Songs of Experience, no. 13 [sung text not yet checked]
by (Thomas) Gerard Victory (1921 - 1995), "The Little Vagabond", 1977/8, first performed 1978 [ soprano, tenor, and SATB chorus a cappella ], from Seven Songs of Experience, no. 3 [sung text not yet checked]
by Carl Paul Vollrath (b. 1931), "The Little Vagabond", 1966, from Songs of Experience [sung text not yet checked]
by Scott Wheeler (b. 1952), "The Little Vagabond", 2007, first performed 2008 [ tenor and piano ], from Heaven and Earth, no. 2, Scott Wheeler Music [sung text checked 1 time]

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 145