Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

II. Parting and Absence

My Old Kentucky Home

Stephen Collins Foster (1826–1864)

THE SUN shines bright on our old Kentucky home;

’T is summer, the darkeys are gay;

The corn top ’s ripe and the meadow ’s in the bloom,

While the birds make music all the day;

The young folks roll on the little cabin floor,

All merry, all happy, all bright;

By’m by hard times comes a knockin’ at the door,—

Then, my old Kentucky home, good night!

Weep no more, my lady; O, weep no more to-day!

We ’ll sing one song for the old Kentucky home,

For our old Kentucky home far away.

They hunt no more for the possum and the coon,

On the meadow, the hill, and the shore;

They sing no more by the glimmer of the moon,

On the bench by the old cabin door;

The day goes by, like the shadow o’er the heart,

With sorrow where all was delight;

The time has come, when the darkeys have to part,

Then, my old Kentucky home, good night!

Weep no more, my lady, etc.

The head must bow, and the back will have to bend,

Wherever the darkey may go;

A few more days, and the troubles all will end,

In the field where the sugar-canes grow;

A few more days to tote the weary load,

No matter, it will never be light;

A few more days till we totter on the road,

Then, my old Kentucky home, good night!

Weep no more, my lady; O, weep no more to-day!

We ’ll sing one song for the old Kentucky home,

For our old Kentucky home far away.