Hank Williams The Funeral Lyrics

The Funeral Lyrics

I was walking in Savannah past a church, decayed and dim

When slowly through the window came a plaintive funeral hymn

My sympathy awakened and a wonder quickly grew

'Til I found myself environed in a little colored pew



Out front a colored couple sat in sorrow nearly wild

On the altar was a casket and in the casket was a child

I could picture him while living, curly hair protruding lips

I'd seen perhaps a thousand in my hurried southern trips



Then rose a sad, old colored preacher from his little wooden desk

With a manner sort of awkward and countenance grotesque

The simplicity and shrewdness in his Ethiopian face

Showed the wisdom and the ignorance of a crushed, undying race



And he said, "Now don't be weepin' for this pretty bit of clay

For the little boy who lived there has done gone and run away

He was doing very finely and he 'ppreciates your love

But his sho nough father wanted him in the big house up above



The Lord didn't give you that baby, by no hundred thousand miles

He just think you need some sunshine and he lent it for a while

And he let you keep and love him 'til your hearts were bigger grown

And these silver tears you're shedding now, are just interest on the loan



Just think my poor dear mourners creeping long on sorrow's way

What a blessed picnic this here baby got today

Your good fathers and good mothers crowd the little fella round

In the angels 'tender garden of the big plantation ground



And his eyes they brightly sparkle at the pretty things he view

But a tear came and he whispered, "I want my parents too"

Then the angel's chief musicians teach that little boy a song

Says if only they be faithful, they'll soon be comin' 'long



And so my poor dear mourners, let your hearts with Jesus rest

And don't go to criticizn' the one what knows the best

He has give us many comforts He's got the right to take away

To the Lord be praised in glory, now and ever, let us pray