A Cento Poem by Beverly Stock, inspired by the American Song Treasury.
As I was lumbering down the street,
A handsome gal I chanced to meet,
“I’ll take you home again Kathleen
To where your heart has ever been.”
I’d ask her ‘Would you want to dance,
I thought that I would have a chance.”
There is a flower within my heart,
Planted one day by her glancing dart.
I want to make that gal my wife,
Then I’ll be happy all my life.
I’ll stand by her in “wheel” or ‘’woe,
She'll be the bell I ring, you know.
Buffalo Gals, 1844 was composed and published by an early Black-Face Minstrel called Cool White, named John Hodges under the title Lubly Fan. By 1850 this song was enormously popularUsing syncopated beats, it was one of the forerunners of jazz.
I’ll Take You Home Again Kathleen, one of two big hits in 1876, written by Thomas Westendorf, for his wife Jennie, but he changed her name. An American classic of tenderness and sincerity.
Daisy Bell, although written in America, it is really English. Written by Henry Decker and published in 1892, it was first a hit in London. It is one of the most typical songs of the Gay Nineties.
This poem was curated from lyrics published in the American Song Treasury, a volume of songs in the public domain, by Dover Publications.