To Miss Nannie Rogers, Louisville, KY
"Driven From Home" (1868)
Written and Composed
by William Shakespeare Hays, 1837-1907

[Source: 129/041@Levy]

1.
Out in this cold world,
out in the street
Asking a penny of each one I meet.
Shoeless I wander about thro' the day,
Wearing my young life in sorrow away;
No one to help me, no one to love,
No one to pity me, none to caress,
Fatherless, motherless sadly I roam,
A child of misfortune,
I'm driven from home.

CHORUS
No one to help me,
No one to bless,
No one to pity me,
None to caress;
Fatherless, motherless, sadly I roam,
Nursed by my poverty, 
Driven from home.

2.
The flowers that bloomed
That I once loved to see,
Seem bowing their heads as if pitying me.
The music that mingles with voices of mirth,
From the windows of pleasure and plenty on earth,
Male me think what it is to be friendless and poor,
And I feel I shall faint when I knock at the door,
Turn a deaf ear, there's no one will come
To help a poor wanderer,
Driven from home.

(CHORUS)

3.
O! where shall I go
Or what can I do
I've no one to tell me what course to pursue.
I'm weary and footsore, I'm hungry and weak
I know not what shelter tonight I may seek
Tho Friend of all friends who rules earth and sea,
Will look with a pitying eye upon me,
I'll wander about till his messenger comes
To lead me to father and mother at home.

(CHORUS)