• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Subscribe on Substack

  • Amazon
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Naomi Clifford

Books + Talks

  • Books
  • About
    • About the author
    • Press and reviews
    • Contact
  • Follow me on Substack (FREE)

The Neglected Daughter

12 January 2017Naomi Clifford

The Neglected Daughter – An Affecting Tale (1804). Courtesy of Library of Congress

On 5 January, as temperatures dived, London Mayor Sadiq Khan opened emergency homeless shelters. That and the research I have recently completed on women who were abandoned by their lovers, cast out of their homes and ostracised by their families after falling pregnant put me in mind of this print from 1804.

THE NEGLECTED DAUGHTER — AN AFFECTING TALE

1

‘Twas on a winter’s evening & fast came down the snow,

And keenly o’er the wide heath the bitter wind did blow,

When a damsel all forlorn, quite bewilder’d in her way,

Press’d her baby to her bosom, & sadly thus did say.

2

Ah! cruel was my father that shut his door on me,

And cruel was my mother that such a sight could see,

Cruel is the winter’s blast, that chills my heart with cold,

But crueller than all the lad that left my love for gold.

3

The hush my dearest baby & warm thee in my breast,

Ah! little thinks thy father how sadly we’re distress’d,

For cruel as he isdid he know but how we fare

He’s shield us in his arms from this bitter piercing air.

4

Hush! hush! my dearest baby, thy little life is gone,

Ah! let my tears revive thee, so warm they trickle down,

The tears that gush so warmly, they freeze before they fall,

Ah! wretched wretched mother, thou’rt now bereft of all.

5

The down she sunk dispairing upon the drifted snow,

And wrung with cruel anguish lamented thus her woe,

She kiss’d her baby’s pale lips, & laid it by her side,

Then cast her eyes to heav’n, & bow’d her head, & died.

Publish’d July 2 1804 by LAURIE & WHITTLE, 53 Fleet Street, London

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Footer

historical writers association logo
  • Books I have reviewed
  • Stories by guest bloggers
  • Image databases
  • Map websites
  • William Cobbett’s State Trials
  • In Our Time index

Subscribe to my newsletter

New stories direct to your inbox.

SIGN UP NOW

Copyright © 2023 Naomi Clifford
Privacy policy