Living

Billy Boy

by Mary Mapes Dodge 1831–1905

From Rhymes and Jingles (1875)

Living

Poor Billy boy was music mad,
Oh music mad was he;
And yet he was as blithe a lad
As any lad could be--
With a hi-de-diddle,
Bow and fiddle,
Rig-a-my, ho! sang he--
For Billy was as blithe a lad
As any lad could be.

"Nobody knows the joy I know,
Or sees the sights I see,
So play me high, or play me low,
My fiddle's enough for me.
It takes me here, it takes me there--
So play me low or high--
It finds me, binds me anywhere,
And lifts me to the sky."
With a hi-de-diddle,
Bow and fiddle,
Rig-a-my, ho! sang he--
For Billy was as blithe a lad
As any lad could be.

MLA

Dodge, Mary Mapes. “Billy Boy.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/dodge_mm/56/.

Chicago

Dodge, Mary Mapes. “Billy Boy.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/dodge_mm/56/.

Read this poem with the Codex →

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