Music from B is for Battle Cry: A Civil War Alphabet

The poems in Battle Cry can be sung to the tune, "Hard Times Come Again No More", a popular Civil War era song by Stephen Foster. A parody was often sung by soldiers tired of the infamous army hard bread ration. You are encouraged to download this music for personal and classroom use.

To hear or download this music, please click on the titles below (right-click the mouse-PC users, or hold down control button-MAC, and click the mouse):

Hard Times Come Again No More
(Stephen Foster)

1. Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears While we all sup sorrow with the poor. There's a song that will linger forever in our ears, Oh, hard times, come again no more.

Chorus:

'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary. Hard times, hard times, come again no more. Many days you have lingered around my cabin door. Oh, hard times, come again no more.

2. While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay, There are frail forms fainting at the door. Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say, Oh, hard times, come again no more.

Chorus:

3. There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away With a worn heart, whose better days are o'er. Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day, Oh, hard times, come again no more.

Chorus:

4. 'Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave 'Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore 'Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave Oh, hard times, come again no more.

Chorus:

This music was performed on April 18th, 2009, by the author, Patricia Bauer, and her good friends, Andrena Wingate and Nick Cobbett, all of whom teach in the same school. The illustrator, David Geister, provided the spoken word portion of Battle Cry. Todd Syring of Syring Music in Minneapolis, MN, produced all three pieces.

Enjoy !