The Village Blacksmith, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
My Daddy Flies That Ship in the Sky, Woody Guthrie
Woman Work, Maya Angelou
Sixteen Tons, Merle Travis or George Davis
Workers of the World Awaken, Joe Hill
Joe Hill, Alfred Hayes
Cathedral Builders, John Ormond
The Walloping Window-Blind, Charles Edward Carryl
Love In the Classroom, Al Zolynas
The Physician, Cole Porter
Riding on a Railroad Train, Ogden Nash
Abort, Retry, Ignore, Lucy Blades
See The USA in Your Chevrolet ‘jingle’
Castro Convertible ‘jingle’
The World, Moshe Ibn Ezra
Who’s Who, W.H. Auden
With a Little Bit of Luck (My Fair Lady), Alan Jay Lerner

*                     *                     *

The Barrister’s Dream, Lewis Carroll


 
 
 

The Village Blacksmith
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Under the spreading chestnut tree
The village smithy stands;
The smith, a mighty man is he,
With large and sinewy hands;
And the muscles of his brawny arms
Are strong as iron bands.

His hair is crisp, and black, and long,
His face is like the tan;
His brow is wet with honest sweat,
He earns whate’er he can.
And looks the whole world in the face,
For he owes not any man.

Week in, week out, from morn till night,
You can hear his bellows blow;
You can hear him swing his heavy sledge,
With measured beat and slow,
Like a sexton ringing the village bell,
When the evening sun is low.

And children coming home from school
Look in at the open door;
They love to see the flaming forge,
And hear the bellows roar,
And catch the burning sparks that fly
Like chaff from the threshing-floor.

He goes on Sunday to the church,
And sits among his boys;
He hears the parson pray and preach,
He hears his daughter’s voice,
Singing in the village choir,
And it makes his heart rejoice.

It sounds to him like her mother’s voice,
Singing in Paradise!
He needs must think of her once more
How in the grave she lies;
And with his hard, rough hand he wipes
A tear out of his eyes.

Toiling, – rejoicing – sorrowing,
Onward through life he goes;
Each morning sees some task begin,
Each evening sees it close
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a night’s repose.

Thanks! thanks, to thee, my worthy friend,
For the lesson thou has taught!
Thus at the flaming forge of life
Our fortunes must be wrought;
Thus on its sounding anvil shaped
Each burning deed and thought.

 
 
 

My Daddy Flies That Ship in the Sky
by Woody Guthrie

You should get the text from another source.

 
 
 

Woman Work
by Maya Angelou

You should get the text from another source.

 
 
 

Sixteen Tons
by Merle Travis or George Davis

You should get the text from another source.

 
 
 

Workers of the World Awaken
by Joe Hill

Workers of the world, awaken!
Break your chains, demand your rights.
All the wealth you make is taken
By exploiting parasites.
Shall you kneel in deep submission
From your cradles to your graves?
Is the height of your ambition
To be good and willing slaves?

If the workers take a notion,
They can stop all speeding trains;
Every ship upon the ocean
They can tie with mighty chains
Every wheel in the creation,
Every mine and every mill,
Fleets and armies of the nation,
Will at their command stand still.

Join the union, fellow workers,
Men and women, side by side;
We will crush the greedy shirkers
Like a sweeping, surging tide;
For united we are standing,
But divided we will fall;
Let this be our understanding-
“All for one and one for all.”

Workers of the world, awaken!
Rise in all your splendid might;
Take the wealth that you are making,
It belongs to you by right.
No one will for bread be crying,
We’ll have freedom, love and health.
When the grand red flag is flying
on the Workers’ Commonwealth.

 
 
 

Joe Hill
by Alfred Hayes

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night
Alive as you or me
Says I, But Joe, you’re ten years dead
I never died, says he
I never died, says he

In Salt Lake, Joe, says I to him
Him standing by my bed
They framed you on a murder charge
Says Joe, But I ain’t dead
Says Joe, But I ain’t dead

The copper bosses killed you, Joe
They shot you, Joe, says I
Takes more than guns to kill a man
Says Joe, I didn’t die
Says Joe, I didn’t die

And standing there as big as life
And smiling with his eyes
Joe says, What they forgot to kill
Went on to organize
Went on to organize

Joe Hill ain’t dead, he says to me
Joe Hill ain’t never died
Where working men are out on strike
Joe Hill is at their side
Joe Hill is at their side

From San Diego up to Maine
In every mine and mill
Where workers strike and organize
Says he, You’ll find Joe Hill
Says he, You’ll find Joe Hill

I dreamed I saw Joe Hill last night
Alive as you or me
Says I, But Joe, you’re ten years dead
I never died, says he
I never died, says he

 
 
 

Cathedral Builders
by John Ormond

You should get the text from another source.

 
 
 

The Walloping Window-Blind
by Charles Edward Carryl

A capital ship for an ocean trip
Was the “Walloping Window-blind”–
No gale that blew dismayed her crew
Or troubled the captain’s mind.
The man at the wheel was taught to feel
Contempt for the wildest blow,
And it often appeared, when the weather had cleared,
That he’d been in his bunk below.

The boatswain’s mate was very sedate,
Yet fond of amusement, too;
And he played hop-scotch with the starboard watch,
While the captain tickled the crew.
And the gunner we had was apparently mad,
For he sat on the after rail,
And fired salutes with the captain’s boots,
In the teeth of the booming gale.

The captain sat in a commodore’s hat
And dined in a royal way
On toasted pigs and pickles and figs
And gummery bread each day.
But the cook was Dutch and behaved as such:
For the food that he gave the crew
Was a number of tons of hot-cross buns
Chopped up with sugar and glue.

And we all felt ill as mariners will,
On a diet that’s cheap and rude;
And we shivered and shook as we dipped the cook
In a tub of his gluesome food.
Then nautical pride we laid aside,
And we cast the vessel ashore
On the Gulliby Isles, where the Poohpooh smiles,
And the Anagazanders roar.

Composed of sand was that favored land,
And trimmed with cinnamon straws;
And pink and blue was the pleasing hue
Of the Tickletoeteaser’s claws.
And we sat on the edge of a sandy ledge
And shot at the whistling bee;
And the Binnacle-bats wore water-proof hats
As they danced in the sounding sea.

On rubagub bark, from dawn to dark,
We fed, till we all had grown
Uncommonly shrunk–when a Chinese junk
Came by from the torriby zone.
She was stubby and square, but we didn’t much care,
And we cheerily put to sea;
And we left the crew of the junk to chew
The bark of the rubagub tree.

 
 
 

Love In the Classroom
by Al Zolynas

You should get the text from another source.

 
 
 

The Physician
by Cole Porter

You should get the text from another source.

 
 
 

Riding on a Railroad Train
by Ogden Nash

You should get the text from another source.

 
 
 

Abort, Retry, Ignore
by Lucy Blades

You should get the text from another source.

 
 
 

See The USA in Your Chevrolet ‘jingle’

See the USA in your Chevrolet
America is asking you to call
Drive your Chevrolet through the USA
America’s the greatest land of all

On a highway, or a road along the levee
Performance is sweeter
Nothing can beat her
Life is completer in a Chevy

So make a date today to see the USA
And see it in your Chevrolet
(Travelin’ east, Travelin’ west)
(Wherever you go Chevy service is best)
(Southward or north, near place or far)
(There’s a Chevrolet dealer for your Chevrolet car)

So make a date today to see the
USA And see it in your Chevrolet

 
 
 

Castro Convertible ‘jingle’

Who’s the first to conquer living space,
It’s in-con-tra-vertible,
That the first to conquer living space
Is the Castro Convertible

Who conquers space with fine design
who saves your money all the time
who’s tops in the convertible line
Cas-tro convertible!!

 
 
 

The World
by Moshe Ibn Ezra
(translated by Peter Cole)

You should get this poem from Peter Cole’s book, The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry From Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492 (2007).

 
 
 

Who’s Who
by W.H. Auden

You should get the text from another source.

 
 
 

With a Little Bit of Luck (My Fair Lady)
by Alan Jay Lerner

You should get the text from another source.