Frontline poetry: The Diggers' Song

Submitted by Anon on 2 July, 2003 - 9:17 Author: Robert Coster

You noble Diggers all, stand up now, stand up now,
You noble Diggers all, stand up now,
The waste land to maintain, seeing Cavaliers by name
Your digging does disdain, and persons all defame
Stand up now, Stand up now.
Your houses they pulldown, stand up now, stand up now,
Your houses they pull down, stand up now.
Your houses they pull down to fight poor men in town,
But the gentry must come down, and the poor shall wear the crown.
Stand up now, Diggers all.

With spades and hoes and ploughs, stand up now, stand up now,
With spades and hoes and ploughs, stand up now,
Your freedom to uphold, seeing cavaliers are bold
To kill you if they could, and rights from you to hold.
Stand up now, Diggers all.

The gentry are all round, stand up now, stand up now,
The gentry are all round, stand up now.
The gentry are all round, on each side they are found,
The wisdom’s so profound, to cheat us of our ground.
Stand up now, stand up now.

The lawyers they conjoin, stand up now, stand up now,
The lawyers they conjoin, stand up now.
To arrest you they advise, such fury they devise,
The devil in them lies and hath blinded both their eyes.
Stand up now, stand up now.

The clergy they come in, stand up now, stand up now,
The clergy they come in, stand up now.
The clergy they come in, and say it is a sin
That we should now begin, our freedom for to win.
Stand up now, Diggers all.

To conquer them by love, come in now, come in now,
To conquer them by love, come in now.
to conquer them by love, as it does you behove,
For he is King above, no power is like to love.
Glory here. Diggers all.

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