I've come to the cabin he danced his wild jigs in, <br />As neat a mud palace as ever was seen; <br />And considering it served to keep poultry and pigs in, <br />I'm sure it was always most elegant clean. <br />But now all about it seems lonely and dreary, <br />All sad and all silent, no piper, no reel; <br />Not even the sun, through the casement, is cheery, <br />Since I miss the dear, darling boy, Teddy O'Neale. <br /> <br />I dreamt but last night--oh! bad luck to my dreaming, <br />I'd die if I thought 'twould come truly to pass,-- <br />But I dreamt, while the tears down my pillow were streaming, <br />That Teddy was courting another fair lass. <br />Oh! didn't I wake with a weeping and wailing,-- <br />The grief of that thought was too deep to conceal; <br />My mother cried--'Norah, child, what is your ailing?' <br />And all I could utter was--'Teddy O'Neale!' <br /> <br />Shall I ever forget when the big ship was ready, <br />And the moment was come when my love must depart; <br />How I sobbed like a spalpeen, 'Good-bye to you, Teddy!' <br />With drops on my cheek and a stone at my heart. <br />He says 'tis to better his fortune he's roving, <br />But what would be gold to the joy I should feel, <br />If I saw him come back to me, honest and loving, <br />Still poor, but my own darling, Teddy O'Neale.<br /><br />Eliza Cook<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/teddy-o-neale/
