Lyrics

[Verse 1] Come all you wild and wicked youths wherever you may be I pray you give attention and listen to me I was brought up in Warwickshire, my parents raised me well My name it is young Henry, a tale to you I'll tell [Verse 2] I and five more went one night to Squire Dunhill's park All hoping we could get some game, the night it did prove dark But to our great misfortune, we were trepanned with speed And sent away to Warwick jail, which caused my heart to bleed [Verse 3] It was at the March assizes, to the bar we did repair Like Job we stood with patience to hear our sentence there Being caught with old offenders, our case it did go hard My sentence was for fourteen years, I was quickly sent on board [Instrumental] [Verse 4] The ship that bore us from the land, the Speedwell was her name For full five months and upwards, oh, we plowed the raging Main No land, no harbor did we see, believe me it's no lie Around us swamp black water, above is one blue sky [Verse 5] The very day we landed upon the fateful shore The planters they stood 'round us, oh, twenty score or more They ranked us up like horses and they sold us out of hand And yoked us to the plow right there, upon Van Diemen's Land [Instrumental] [Verse 6] It's often when I sleep at night, I have a pleasant dream My pretty girl, I rove abroad, through field and sparkling stream Yes, in England I've been roving with her at my right hand But I wake up broken-hearted here, upon Van Diemen's Land [Verse 7] And although the poor of England pay their end in toil Robbed of every consequence, produce of the soil Their proud, imperious landlord, if you paid rent and then Sent you off on British hulks to foul Van Diemen's Land