Alfred Edward Housman: Collected Lyrics
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Public-domain lyrics

The Carpenter's Son

Alfred Edward Housman

“The Carpenter's Son” as printed in A Shropshire Lad (1896).

Alfred Edward Housman: Collected Lyrics Text 37 1896 · historical text
Public domainSong lyricsVictorian song
Complete public-domain lyrics

This text comes from A Shropshire Lad, a historical songbook transcribed on Wikisource and reproduced from the pinned revision linked below.

Verse 1

'Here the hangman stops his cart:

Now the best of friends must part.

Fare you well, for ill fare I:

Live, lads, and I will die.

Verse 2

'Oh, at home had I but stayed

'Prenticed to my father's trade,

Had I stuck to plane and adze,

I had not been lost, my lads.

Verse 3

'Then I might have built perhaps

Gallows-trees for other chaps,

Never dangled on my own,

Had I but left ill alone.

Verse 4

'Now, you see, they hang me high,

And the people passing by

Stop to shake their fists and curse;

So 't is come from ill to worse.

Verse 5

'Here hang I, and right and left

Two poor fellows hang for theft:

All the same 's the luck we prove,

Though the midmost hangs for love.

Verse 6

'Comrades all, that stand and gaze,

Walk henceforth in other ways;

See my neck and save your own:

Comrades all, leave ill alone.

Verse 7

'Make some day a decent end,

Shrewder fellows than your friend.

Fare you well, for ill fare I:

Live, lads, and I will die.'

Credits

Written by Alfred Edward Housman

Words by Alfred Edward Housman. Historical text published in A Shropshire Lad (1896); public domain. No claim to a modern recording or arrangement.

Source & text edition

A Shropshire Lad (1896), “The Carpenter's Son”

A. E. Housman (1859-1936) died more than 89 years ago; his works entered the public domain in life-plus-70 jurisdictions in 2007, and the 1896 first edition is in the public domain in the United States. Entries credited to other hands are held unless their author died more than 70 years ago.

How to read this historical text and its source

Read the source on Wikisource

View copyright evidence · Transcription terms (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Retrieved 2026-10-27. Line spacing and section labels are adapted for reading. The displayed text follows the linked edition. Editorial notes and abstract artwork are by 52lyrics.
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