I set the bell a-ringing
When the bride to the altar was led ;
And I loved to hear it swinging
So merrily over my head.
The children flung gay garlands round
While I set forth the jocund sound ;
Then many tears were shod, but yet
The young lips smiled while the cheek was wet.
Ah, me ! a song of joy and hope
Was heard afar as I pulled my rope.
I set the bell a-tolling
When the bride to the churchyard was borne,
And the dismal notes went rolling
To tell of a heart forlorn.
The wond'ring children stood aghast,
As sable mourners by them pass'd--
"And she is gone, so fair, so young,"
Thus loudly lamented the iron tongue.
Ah, me ! a song of perished hope
Was heard afar as I pulled my rope.
I set the bell a-pealing
When in shadow is buried the day,
And a wondrous spell is stealing
O'er the hearts of the grave and gay ;
Tho aged hear the funeral chime
Of slowly, surely dying time ;
The youthful hear a cheering strain,
That tells them day will revive again.
Ah, me ! a song of grief and hope
Is heard afar as I pull my rope.
--John Oxenford.
Notes
From the NSW Newspaper The Worker 5 Mar 1904 p. 3.
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