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I'm a poor unfortunate miserable man,
An I'll tell you the reason I'm so;
I was traveling around the whole livelong day,
And looking for something to do.
First I invented the heel for a shoe,
And a very fine model I made, I made;
It's as if it would never wear out,
For l'm a shoemaker by trade.
l was here and there and everywhere,
Into every old boot and shoe store;
But they told me there my intention was clear,
For someone had been there before.
What is the reason that I'm always late,
For there's nothing I ever went for,
But for to find out why I am behind time,
For someone has been there before.
l courted a girl and she lived way out west,
And I loved her as dear as my life;
One night as I went to impose upon her,
And asked her if she' d be my wife.
What do you think but she give me the sock,
And she kicked me right over the door;
She said it was nonsense to impose upon her,
For someone had been there before.
What is the reason that I'm always late,
For there's nothing I ever went for,
But for to find out why I am behind time,
For someone has been there before.
Collected in 1951 from Bobby O'Brien of Trepassey, NL, and published in MacEdward Leach And The Songs Of Atlantic Canada © 2004 Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA).
