"The Old Farmer" (1877)
Song for Bass
[Words and Music]
by Joseph Dunbar

Boston: White, Smith & Company, 516 Washington St.
N.York: W. A. Pond & Co.
Chicago: Root & Sons Music Co.
Bangor: Patten & Wheelden
Plate No. 3166-3
[Source: 1877-14429@LoC]

1. On a green grassy knoll, by the banks of the brook;
That so long and so often has water’d his flock,
The old farmer rests in his long and last sleep,
While the waters a low lapsing lullaby keep.

[REFRAIN sung after each VERSE]
He has plough’d his last furrow, he has reap’d his last grain,
No morn can awake him to labor again,
He has plough’d his last furrow, he has reap’d his last grain,
No morn can awake him to labor again.
No morn can awake him to labor again.

2. You tree that with fragrance is filling the air;
So rich with its blossoms, so thrifty and fair;
By his own hand was planted, and well did he say,
It would live when its planter had moulded away.

3. There’s the well that he dug, with its waters so cold,
With its wet dripping bucket, so mossy and old,
No more from its depths by the patriarch drawn,
For the pitcher is broken, the old man is gone.

4. ’Twas a gloom giving day when the old farmer died,
The stout hearted mourned, the affectionate cried,
And the prayers of the just for his rest did ascend,
For they all lost a Brother, a Man and a friend.

5. For so upright and honest the old farmer was,
His God he revered, he respected the laws,
Though fameless he lived, he has gone where his worth,
Will outshine, like pure gold, all the dross of the earth.