Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

IV. Wooing and Winning

Widow Malone

Charles Lever (1806–1872)

DID you hear of the Widow Malone,

Ohone!

Who lived in the town of Athlone,

Alone!

O, she melted the hearts

Of the swains in them parts:

So lovely the Widow Malone.

Ohone!

So lovely the Widow Malone.

Of lovers she had a full score,

Or more,

And fortunes they all had galore,

In store;

From the minister down

To the clerk of the Crown

All were courting the Widow Malone,

Ohone!

All were courting the Widow Malone.

But so modest was Mistress Malone,

’T was known

That no one could see her alone,

Ohone!

Let them ogle and sigh,

They could ne’er catch her eye,

So bashful the Widow Malone,

Ohone!

So bashful the Widow Malone.

Till one Misther O’Brien, from Clare

(How quare!

It ’s little for blushing they care

Down there),

Put his arm round her waist,—

Gave ten kisses at laste,—

“O,” says he, “you ’re my Molly Malone,

My own!

O,” says he, “you ’re my Molly Malone!”

And the widow they all thought so shy,

My eye!

Ne’er thought of a simper or sigh,—

For why?

But, “Lucius,” says she,

“Since you ’ve now made so free,

You may marry your Mary Malone.

Ohone!

You may marry your Mary Malone.”

There ’s a moral contained in my song,

Not wrong;

And one comfort, it ’s not very long,

But strong,—

If for widows you die,

Learn to kiss, not sigh;

For they ’re all like sweet Mistress Malone,

Ohone!

O, they’re all like sweet Mistress Malone!