Stephen Collins Foster

Stephen Collins Foster Poems

The morn of life is past,
And ev'ning comes at last;
It brings me a dream of a once happy day,
...

De Camptown ladies sing dis song - Doo-dah! doo-dah!
De Camptown racetrack five miles long - Oh! doo-dah day!
I come down dah wid my hat caved in - Doo-dah! doo-dah!
...

ROUND de meadows am a-ringing
De darkeys? mournful song,
While de mocking-bird am singing,
Happy as de day am long.
...

1 Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me,
2 Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee;
3 Sounds of the rude world heard in the day,
...

Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears,
While we all sup sorrow with the poor;
...

1 I came from Alabama
2 wid my ban jo on my knee,
3 I'm g'wan to Louisiana,
...

De time is nebber dreary if de darkey nebber groans;
De ladies nebber weary wid de rattle of de bones:
...

De
Glendy Burk
is mighty fast boat,
Wid a mighty fast captain too;
...

1 Gone are the days when my heart was young and gay,
2 Gone are my friends from the cotton fields away,
3 Gone from the earth to a better land I know,
...

Thou wilt come no more, gentle Annie,
Like a flower thy spirit did depart;
Thou art gone, alas! like the many
...

ROUND de meadows am a-ringing
De darkeys' mournful song,
While de mocking-bird am singing,
...

1 Way down upon de Swanee ribber,
2 Far, far away,
...

1 The sun shines bright in the old Kentucky home,
2 'Tis summer, the darkies are gay,
...

My wife is a most knowing woman,
She always is finding me out,
She never will hear explanations
...

De Camptown ladies sing dis song—Doo-dah! doo-dah!
De Camp-town race-track five miles long—Oh! doo-dah day!
...

Nelly Bly! Nelly Bly! bring de broom along,
We'll sweep de kitchen clean, my dear, and hab a little song.
Poke de wood, my lady lub,
...

Ah! may the red rose live alway,

— To smile upon earth and sky!
...

There are voices of hope that are borne on the air,
And our land will be freed from its clouds of despair,
For brave men and true men to battle have gone,
...

Come where my love lies dreaming,
Dreaming the happy hours away,
In visions bright redeeming
...

Once I could laugh and play,
When in life's early day,
Then I was far away—
...

Stephen Collins Foster Biography

Stephen Collins Foster (July 4, 1826 – January 13, 1864), known as the "father of American music", was an American songwriter primarily known for his parlour and minstrel music. Foster wrote over 200 songs; among his best known are "Oh! Susanna", "Camptown Races", "Old Folks at Home", "My Old Kentucky Home", "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair", "Old Black Joe", "Massa's in the Cold Ground", "Nelly Bly", "Old Uncle Ned" and "Beautiful Dreamer". Many of his compositions remain popular more than 150 years after he wrote them. Foster attended private academies in Allegheny, Athens and Towanda, Pennsylvania. He received an education in English grammar, diction, the classics, penmanship, Latin and Greek, and mathematics. In 1839, his elder brother William was serving his apprenticeship as an engineer at nearby Towanda and thought Stephen would benefit from being under his supervision. The site of the Camptown Races is 30 miles from Athens, and 15 miles from Towanda. Stephen attended Athens Academy from 1839 to 1841. He wrote his first composition, Tioga Waltz, while attending Athens Academy, and performed it during the 1841 commencement exercises; he was 14. It was not published during the composer's lifetime, but it is included in the collection of published works by Morrison Foster. In 1842, Athens Academy was destroyed in a fire. His education included a brief period at Jefferson College in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania (now Washington & Jefferson College). His tuition was paid, but Foster had little spending money. Sources conflict on whether he left willingly or was dismissed; but, either way, he left Canonsburg to visit Pittsburgh with another student and didn't return. During his teenage years, Foster was influenced greatly by two men. Henry Kleber (1816–1897), one of Stephen’s few formal music instructors, was a classically trained musician who emigrated from Darmstadt, Germany, to Pittsburgh and opened a music store. Dan Rice was an entertainer, a clown and blackface singer, making his living in traveling circuses. Although respectful of the more civilized parlor songs of the day, he and his friends would often sit at a piano, writing and singing minstrel songs through the night. Eventually, Foster learned to blend the two genres to write some of his best-known work.)

The Best Poem Of Stephen Collins Foster

Old Dog Tray

The morn of life is past,
And ev'ning comes at last;
It brings me a dream of a once happy day,
Of merry forms I've seen
Upon the village green,
Sporting with my old dog Tray.

Chorus:
Old dog Tray's ever faithful;
Grief cannot drive him away;
He's gentle, he is kind,
I'll never, never find
A better friend than old dog Tray.

The forms I called my own
Have vanish'd one by one,
The lov'd ones, the dear ones have all pass'd away;
Their happy smiles have flown,
Their gentle voices gone,
I've nothing left but old dog Tray.

Chorus.

When thoughts recall the past,
His eyes are on me cast,
I know that he feels what my breaking heart would say;
Although he cannot speak,
I'll vainly, vainly seek
A better friend than old dog Tray

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