The Low-Backed Car
(The Pretty Plow Boy)
Samuel Lover 1846 (1797-1868)
When first I saw sweet Peggy,
'Twas on a market day,
A low-backed car
She drove, and sat
Upon a truss of hay;
But when that hay was blooming grass,
And decked with flowers of Spring,
No flow'r was there
That could compare
With the blooming girl I sing.
As she sat in her low-backed car -
The man at the turnpike bar
Never asked for the toll,
But just rubbed his owld poll
And looked after the low-backed car.
In battle's wild commotion,
The proud and mighty Mars,
With hostile scythes,
Demands his tithes
Of deathin warlike cars;
While Peggy, peaceful goddess,
Has darts in her bright eye,
That knock men down,
In the market town,
As right and left they fly -
While she sits in her low-backed car,
Than battle more dangerous far -
For the doctor's art,
Cannot cure the heart
That is hit from that low-backed car.
Sweet Peggy round her car, sir
Has strings of ducks and geese,
But the scores of hearts
she slaughters,
By far outnumber these;
While she among her poultry sits,
Just like a turtle dove
Well worth the cage,
I do engage,
Of the blooming god of Love!
While she sits in her low-back'd car,
The lovers come near and far,
And envy the chicken,
that Peggy is pickin'
While she sits in her low-back'd car.
I'd rather own that car, sir!
With Peggy by my side,
Than a coach and four,
and gold galore
And a lady for my bride.
For the lady would sit fornisnt me,
On a cushion made with taste,
While Peggy would
sit beside me,
With my arm around her waist.
As we drove in the low-back'd car,
To be married by Father Maher,
Oh, my heart would beat high
At her glance and her sigh,
Tho' it beat in a low-back'd car.