Come, all ye sons of Paddy's land and listen unto me 'Til I relate of the hardships great a-crossing over the sea For the want of bread ten thousands fled so far across the foam And left the land where they were born called Erin's lovely home
Black forty-seven I'll never forget when the fever, it stalked the land And the famine without mercy, it stretched forth its dreadful hand There's many's the child in cold death lay, their parents, they did mourn While the landlord's agents pulled down our roofs in Erin's lovely home
My father was a farming man reared to industry He had two sons, they were men strong, and lovely daughters three Our farm was too small to feed us all, so some of us had to roam With sisters two I bid adieu to Erin's lovely home
My father sold the second cow, he borrowed twenty pounds And in the merry month of May we sailed from Sligo town There were thousands more left upon the shore, all anxious for to roam And leave the land where they were born called Erin's lovely home
We were scarcely seven days at sea when the fever, it plagued our crew They were falling like the autumn leaves bidding friends and life adieu Now the raging waves sweep o'er their graves amidst the ocean foam Their friends may mourn, but they'll never return to Erin's lovely home
My loving sisters, they both took ill, their lives, they were taken away And oh it grieves my heart full sore to cast them in the sea Down in the deep now they do sleep, they never more will roam In heaven I'll meet with my sisters sweet from Erin's lovely home
I'm in the land of liberty where plenty, it does abound Where the laboring man gets full reward for the tilling of his ground There's naught I can see that can comfort me, as an exile I must roam And end my days far, far away from Erin's lovely home 1