“Speak to me gently before we begin,” she pleads, but they laugh and pull her down;
And after they’ve used her, briefly and roughly, they leave her to face the dawn alone.
When they have gone she moves on her side, thinks of the men that with her have laid –
And none of them gave her a kind word of loving, and after they’d done, not one of them stayed.
Once she was wary, chose but a few to roll in her arms at the end of the day,
But the flowers of love begins now to wither, and many may pluck at the petals so gay
Alone in the night she muses awhile, and thinks of the days and how they will pass ~
She cries for the lonely years that are waiting, ‘til death takes her hand and waits her reply.
Down in the barroom she moves among men who watch her and touch her whenever they can;
And she notices hands, and mouths as they drink, and over their tankards the eyes of each man…
Speak to me gently before we begin
She Moves Among Men (The Barmaid’s Song)
(Caddick) sung by June Tabor
