Cast for Lag
On the Pamunkey’s pine-fringed shore—
Lord! how drear is the torrent’s roar!
Sits the gentleman rum-pad, slave,
Watching the leap of the restless wave,
And sighing for his Jenny.
Cast for lag was this scampsman bold,
Flung in a slaver’s stinking hold,
Kicked and flogged like a vagrant cur—
That was hard on a gentleman, Sir,
Who sighed for pretty Jenny.
Bought by a planter and driven away
Many a mile on a sweltering day,
Lashed to a negro, foul and black,
Each time I stumbled the whip on my back,
Lord! how I sighed for Jenny.
Set to work in the sugar canes,
Hunger, thirst, and the sun’s hot pains,
Bed at night with a filthy crew,
Tumble and toss and sweat and stew,
And wretched dreams of Jenny.
Thus the miserable days go by,
Grinding toil ’neath a torrid sky,
Pain and hate, thirst and hunger wild,
Tears at night like a beaten child—
Pray for me, pretty Jenny!