Clementine

(later, more well-known, version)

Words & Music:

Barker Bradford (1885) / New lyrics by unknown author

 

     A                        E7           A

In a cavern, in a canyon, excavating for a mine,

        E7           A              E7             A

Dwelt a miner, forty-niner, and his daughter Clementine.

 

CHORUS:

Oh my darling, oh my darling, oh my darling Clementine

You are lost and gone forever, dreadful sorry, Clementine.

 

Light she was, and like a fairy, and her shoes were number nine,

Herring boxes without topses, sandals were for Clementine.

CHORUS:

 

Walking lightly as a fairy, though her shoes were number nine,

Sometimes tripping, lightly skipping, lovely girl, my Clementine.

CHORUS:

 

Drove she ducklings to the water ev'ry morning just at nine,

Hit her foot against a splinter, fell into the foaming brine.

CHORUS:

 

Ruby lips above the water, blowing bubbles soft and fine,

But alas, I was no swimmer, neither was my Clementine.

CHORUS:

 

In a churchyard near the canyon, where the myrtle doth entwine,

There grow rosies and some posies, fertilized by Clementine.

CHORUS:

 

Then, the miner, forty-niner, soon began to fret and pine,

Thought he oughter join his daughter, so, he's now with Clementine.

CHORUS:

 

I'm so lonely, lost without her, wish I'd had a fishing line,

Which I might have cast about her, might have saved my Clementine.

CHORUS:

 

In my dreams she still doth haunt me, robed in garments soaked with brine,

Then she rises from the waters, and I kiss my Clementine.

CHORUS:

 

How I missed her, how I missed her, how I missed my Clementine,

'Til I kissed her little sister, and forgot my Clementine.

CHORUS: