ABSTRACT
My name's Polly Parker, I come o’er from Worsley My father and mother work in the coal mine. Our family's large, we have got seven children So I am obliged to work in the same mine. As this is my fortune, I know you'll feel sorry That in such employment my days I shall pass I keep up my spirits, I sing and look merry, Although I am but a poor collier lass. By the greatest of dangers each day I’m surrounded; I hang in the air by a rope or a chain. The mine may fall in, I may be killed or wounded, May perish by damp or the fire of the train. And what would you do if it weren't for our labour? In wretched starvation your days you would pass, While we could provide you with life's greatest blessing — Then do not despise the poor collier lass. The ‘Collier Lass’, verses 1 and 2. Broadside printed by Harkness of Preston, quoted in R. Palmer, Poverty Knock (Cambridge, 1974), p.44.
