“ARE you ready for your steeplechase, Lorraine, Lorraine, Lorree? <br /> Barum, Barum, Barum, Barum, Barum, Barum, Baree. <br />You’re booked to ride your capping race to-day at Coulterlee, <br />You’re booked to ride Vindictive, for all the world to see, <br />To keep him straight, and keep him first, and win the run for me.” <br /> Barum, Barum, Barum, Barum, Barum, Barum, Baree. <br /> <br />She clasp’d her newborn baby, poor Lorraine, Lorraine, Lorrèe, <br /> Barum, Barum, Barum, Barum, Barum, Barum, Baree. <br />“I cannot ride Vindictive, as any man might see, <br />And I will not ride Vindictive, with this baby on my knee; <br />He ’s kill’d a boy, he ’s kill’d a man, and why must he kill me?” <br /> <br />“Unless you ride Vindictive, Lorraine, Lorraine, Lorree, <br />Unless you ride Vindictive to-day at Coulterlee, <br />And land him safe across the brook, and win the blank for me, <br />It ’s you may keep your baby, for you ’ll get no keep from me.” <br /> <br />“That husbands could be cruel,” said Lorraine, Lorraine, Lorrèe, <br />“That husbands could be cruel, I have known for seasons three; <br />But oh, to ride Vindictive while a baby cries for me, <br />And be kill’d across a fence at last for all the world to see!” <br /> <br />She master’d young Vindictive—O, the gallant lass was she! <br />And kept him straight and won the race as near as near could be; <br />But he kill’d her at the brook against a pollard willow tree; <br />Oh! he kill’d her at the brook, the brute, for all the world to see, <br />And no one but the baby cried for poor Lorraine, Lorree.<br /><br />Charles Kingsley<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/lorraine/
