by John Keats (1795 - 1821)
Dawlish Fair
Language: English
Over the hill and over the dale, And over the bourn to Dawlish -- Where Gingerbread Wives have a scanty sale, And gingerbread huts are smallish. Rantipole Betty she ran down a hill And kicked up her petticoats fairly Says I I'll be Jack if you will be Gill. So she sat on the grass debonnairly. Here's somebody coming, here's somebody coming! Says I 'tis the wind at parley So without any fuss and hawing and humming She lay on the grass debonnairly. Here's somebody here and here's somebody there! Says I hold your tongue you young Gipsey; So she held her tongue and lay plump and fair And dead as a venus tipsy. O who wouldn't [hie]1 to Dawlish fair O who wouldn't stop in a Meadow, [O who would not]2 rumple the daisies there And make the wild [fern]3 for a bed do!
View original text (without footnotes)
1 Hagen: "go"
2 Hagen: "wouldn't"
3 Hagen: "ferns"
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
1 Hagen: "go"
2 Hagen: "wouldn't"
3 Hagen: "ferns"
Text Authorship:
- by John Keats (1795 - 1821), "Dawlish Fair" [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 Daron Aric Hagen (b. 1961), "Dawlish Fair", 1983-99, first performed 1999 [voice and piano], from Heart of the Stranger, no. 5. [text verified 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2009-10-16
Line count: 20
Word count: 144