Print This Page#01193 Print This Page
I often hear men ask how the women talk so fast,
And how they come by every bit of news;
From morning until night, all day until midnight,
And the way they work their tongue like shrews.
You'd be fairly talked to death before they would lose their breath,
Isn't it a wonder why their tongues is never sore?
Sewing or a spinning you will always find them chinning,
Either at the window or the door.
There's no use in you beginning for to stop a woman's chinning,
For whatever you do she's equal to the test;
Take my advice and drop it for I know you cannot stop it,
For a woman's tongue will never take a rest.
Here am I a married man trying to do the best I can,
To keep my family the way I think it's right;
I lead a sorrowful life because I have a talking wife,
And her tongue runs from morning until night.
Do you wonder how I feel when I'm sitting at my meal,
My wife at her chinning does commence;
When I am working hard I will find her in the yard,
And she, talking to her neighbours o'er the fence.
She's bound to be heard before I can get in one word,
And when she's done she tries to tell me more;
Young men are fond of running after all those pretty women,
It's now better than you know before.
It's very well to go a-courting who likes that kind of sporting,
But the old saying is, do it while you're young;
Don't give yourself away to a girl who talks all day,
So just marry a woman who cannot use her tongue.
There's no use in you beginning for to stop a woman's chinning,
For whatever you do she's equal to the test;
Take my advice and drop it, for I know you and I'll never stop it,
For a woman's tongue will never take a rest.
Collected in 1950 from Matilda Rice (1881-1974) of Cape Broyle, NL, and published in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada © 2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).
