HANK WILLIAMS - The Funeral lyrics

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Recorded by hank williams, sr.<br>Writer: fred rose<br><br>I was walking in savannah past a church, decayed and dim<br>When slowly through the window came a plaintive funeral hymn<br>And my sympathy awakened and a wonder quickly grew<br>'til I found myself envired in a little colored pew.<br><br>Out front a colored couple sat in sorrow, nearly wild<br>On the altar was a casket and in the casket was a child<br>I could picture him while livin', curly hair, protuding lips<br>I'd seen perhaps a thousand in my hurried southern trips.<br><br>Rose a sad, old colored preacher from his little wooden desk<br>With a manner sorta awkward, and countenance grotesque<br>The simplicity and shrewdness in his eithopian face<br>Showed the wisdom and ignorance of a crushed, undying race.<br><br>And he said, now don't be weepin' for this pretty bit of clay<br>For the little boy who lived there has done gone and run away<br>He was doin' very finely and he appreciates your love<br>But his shore 'nuff father wanted him in the big house up above.<br><br>The lord didn't give you that baby, by no hundred thousand miles<br>He just thought you need some sunshine, and he lent it for awhile<br>And he let you keep and love it 'til your hearts were bigger grown<br>And these silver tears you're sheddin' now is just interest on the loan.<br><br>Just think, my poor dear mourners, creepin' 'long on sorrows life's way<br>What a blessed picnic this here baby got today<br>Your good fathers and good mothers crowd the little fellow 'round<br>In the angel's tender garden of the big plantation ground.<br><br>And his eyes they brightly sparkle at the pretty things he viewed<br>But a tear came, and he whispered, 'i want my parents , too'<br>But then the angel's chief musicians teach that little boy a song<br>Says if only they be faithful they'll soon be comin' 'long.<br><br>So, my poor detached mourners, let your hearts with jesus rest<br>And don't go to criticizin' the one what knows the best<br>He has give us many comforts, he's got the right to take away<br>To the lord be praised in glory, forever, let us pray.