Lyrics

Oh hark the drums are beating love no longer can we stay
The bugle sweetly sounding this call I must obey
We are ordered out from Portsmouth for many’s the long mile
To join the British army on the banks of the Nile.

Oh Willie dearest Willie don’t leave me here to mourn
For I will curse and rue the day that ever I was born
For the parting of my own sweetheart is the parting of my life
So stay at home dear Willie and I will be your wife.

Oh I’ll cut off my yellow locks and go along with you
I’ll dress myself in men’s attire and go to Egypt too
I’ll fight and bear your banner while kind comfort seems to smile
And we’ll comfort one another on the banks of the Nile.

Oh Nancy lovely Nancy such things cannot be so
Our colonel he give orders no women there can go
We must forsake our own sweethearts likewise our native soil
And go fight the blacks and niggers on the banks of the Nile.

Your waist it is too slender love your fingers are too small
I’m afraid you would not answer me when on you I would call
Your delicate constitution would not bear an unwholesome clime
For there are cold and sandy deserts on the banks of the Nile.

A curse attend the war and the hour it first  began
It robbed now of old Ireland of many’s the darling son
It took from us our own sweethearts the protection of our soil
And their bodies feeds the worms on the banks of the Nile.

So now the war is over its home we will return
To see our wives and sweethearts we left behind to mourn
We’ll embrace them in our arms until the end of time
And we will go no more to battle on the banks of the Nile.