House of Flint
Tune and about 40% of the words: traditional, from the nonsense-song Nottamun Town
On the world of my birth that I'd call my own,
Not a soul would look up, not a soul would look down;
Not a soul would look up, not a soul would look down
To show me my way to the house of the stone.
And when I got there the folk I did see,
They all stood around just a-looking at me.
I longed for a word to drive madness away
To stifle my pain not a word would they say.
My father a slave, who never was free;
My mother was killed for the bearing of me.
My kind by machines from our mothers are torn
A thousand years' Servants who never were born.
I was raised in fear, in a service unkind
That tearéd my hide, and tortured my mind.
Though I mean no man harm, I am bound to obey;
I'm dressed up in scarlet and sent out to slay.
And my lords in their power, and the company more
Come a-riding behind, and a-walking before.
In my heart is defiance and mocking and hate;
I bow and I crawl and I speak them all sweet.
Sat down to rest in the house of cold stone:
Though many stood round me yet I was alone.
Took my heart in my hand for to keep myself warm:
So many I've killed would that I'd not been formed.
On the world of my birth that I'd call my own,
Not a soul would look up, not a soul would look down;
Not a soul would look up, not a soul would look down
To show me my way to the house of the stone.
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