Lyrics:
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Oh, hark the drum still beats, my love: no longer can we stay.
The bugle horn is sounding clear and we must march away.
We're ordered down to Portsmouth and it's many's the weary mile
To join the British Army on the banks of the Nile.
Oh, Willie, dearest Willie, don't leave me here to mourn.
Don't make me curse and rue the day that ever I was born,
For the parting of our love would be like parting with my life.
So stay at home, my dearest love, and I will be your wife.
Oh, my Nancy, dearest Nancy, sure, that would never do.
The government has ordered, and we are bound to go.
The government has ordered, and the Queen, she gives command
And I am bound on oath, my love, to serve in a foreign land.
Oh, but I'll cut off my yellow hair, and I'll go along with you.
I'll dress myself in uniform, and I'll see Egypt too.
I'll march beneath your banner while Fortune, it do smile
And we'll comfort one another on the banks of the Nile.
Your waist, it is too slender, and your fingers, they are too small
And the sultry suns of Egypt your rosy cheeks would spoil.
Where the cannons, they do rattle and the bullets, they do fly
And the silver trumpet sounds so loud: to hide the dismal cries.
Oh, cursed be these cruel wars, wherever they began
For they have robbed our country of many's the handsome man.
They've robbed us of our sweethearts, while their bodies, they feed the lions
On the dry and sandy deserts which are the banks of the Nile.
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