THE GIPSY QUEEN.
Oh! 'tis I am the Gipsy Queen!
And where is there queen like me,
That can revel upon the green,
In boundless liberty?
What though my cheek be brown,
And wild my raven hair,
A red cloth hood my crown,
And my sceptre the wand I bear!
Yet, 'tis I am the Gipsy Queen!
With my kingdom I'm well content,
Though my realm's but the hawthorn glade;
And my palace a tatter'd tent
Beneath the willow's shade:
Though my banquet I'm forc'd to make
On haws and berries store,
And the game that by chance we take
From some neighbouring hind's barn door!
Yet, 'tis I am the Gipsy Queen!
'Tis true I must ply my art,
And share in my subjects' toils;
But of all their gains I've part,
I've the choice of all their spoils;
And, by love and duty led,
Ere from my jet black eye
One sad tear should be shed,
A thousand hearts would die!
For, 'tis I am the Gipsy Queen!