The Ballad of Frankie Silver - читать онлайн бесплатно полную версию книги . Страница 3

The Ballad of Frankie Silver

This dreadful, dark and dismal dayHas swept my glories all away;My sun goes down, my days are past,And I must leave this world at last.Oh! Lord, what will become of me?I am condemned, you all now see;To heaven or hell my soul must fly,All in a moment when I die.Judge Donnell my sentence has passed,These prison walls I leave at last;Nothing to cheer my drooping headUntil I’m numbered with the dead.But Oh! That awful judge I fear,Shall I that awful sentence hear:“Depart, ye cursed, down to hellAnd forever there to dwell.”I know that frightful ghosts I’ll see,Gnawing their flesh in misery;And then and there attended beFor murder in the first degree.Then shall I meet that mournful face,Whose blood I spilled upon this place;With flaming eyes to me he’ll say,“Why did you take my life away?”His feeble hands fell gently down,His chattering tongue soon lost its sound,To see his soul and body partIt strikes with terror in my heart.I took his blooming days away,Left him no time to God to pray;And if sins fall upon his head,Must I not bear them in his stead?The jealous thought that first gave strifeTo make me take my husband’s life,For months and days I spent my timeThinking how to commit this crime.And on a dark and doleful nightI put the body out of sight,With flames I tried to him consume,But time would not admit it done.You all see me and on me gaze,Be careful how you spend your days;And never commit this awful crime,But try to serve your God in time.My mind on solemn subjects rolls,My little child, God bless its soul;All you that are of Adam’s race,Let not my faults this child disgrace.Farewell, good people, you all now seeWhat my bad conduct’s brought on me;To die of shame and disgraceBefore the world of human race.Awful indeed to think of death,In perfect health to lose my breath;Farewell my friends, I bid adieu,Vengeance on me you must now pursue.Great God! How shall I be forgiven?Not fit for earth, not fit for Heaven;But little time to pray to God,For now I try that awful road.