Old Ben Golliday Jumped off the wagon box, And trotted with his horses, Clop, clop, clop. Old Ben Golliday Was angry with his little wife, And didn't see her bonnet strings Fly, fly, fly. Didn't look around At the thank-you-mam, thank-you-mam, Didn't see her somersault High, high, high. Old Ben Golliday Trotted to the barn door, And went in with his horses To sleep, sleep, sleep. Old Ben Golliday, Dozing in the manger there, Don't you know your little wife Sits in the sky? Old Ben Golliday, Who will get your dinner now, Who will sew your buttons on? My, my, my!
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Text Authorship:
- by Mark van Doren (1894 - 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 John Woods Duke (1899 - 1984), "Old Ben Golliday", 1965 [ medium voice and piano ], Carl Fischer [sung text not yet checked]
- by Brian Holmes (b. 1946), "Old Ben Golliday", from Six Lullabies, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Brian Holmes
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 102