She was poor but she was honest

Speranza

it’s the same the whole world over

isn’t it a bleedin’ shame

it's the rich what gets the pleasure

& the poor what gets the blame.

 

 

she was poor but she was honest

victim of the colonel’s whim

first he wooed her then seduced her

& she had a child by him.

then she went away to London

for to hide her grief & shame

but she met an army captain

& she lost her name again

in the little country cottage

where her saddened parents live

tho’ they drink the fizz she sends ‘em

yet they never can forgive.

now she’s standing in the gutter

selling matches a penny a box

while he’s riding in his carriage

with an awful dose of pox

see him in a grand theayter

eating chocolate in the pit

while the poor girl what he ruined

wanders round thru mud & shit

see him in the house of commons

making laws to put down crime

while the victim of his passion

slinks around to hide her shime

now she’s livin’ in the cottage

but she very rarely smiles

& her only occupation

is cracking ice for grandad’s piles.