Song Lyrics Hank Snow - The Ballad of One-Eyed Mike [Lyrics & Song Text Archive]

lyrics archive>> H>> Hank Snow Singer Lyrics [Hank Snow other resources]>> The Ballad of One-Eyed Mike Song Lyrics

Author/Artist/Singer:	Hank Snow
Music Title/Track:	The Ballad of One-Eyed Mike
Theme ID:	4072
Album:	N/A

This is the tale that was told to me by the man with the crystal eye,

As I smoked my pipe in the camp-fire light, and the Glories swept the sky;

As the Northlights gleamed and curved and streamed, and the bottle of "hooch" was dry.

A man once aimed that my life be shamed, and wrought me a deathly wrong;

I vowed one day I would well repay, but the heft of his hate was strong.

He thonged me East and he thonged me West; he harried me back and forth,

Till I fled in fright from his peerless spite to the bleak, bald-headed North.

And there I lay, and for many a day I hatched plan after plan,

For a golden haul of the wherewithal to crush and to kill my man;

And there I strove, and there I clove through the drift of icy streams;

And there I fought, and there I sought for the pay-streak of my dreams.

So twenty years, with their hopes and fears and smiles and tears and such,

Went by and left me long bereft of hope of the Midas touch;

About as fat as a chancel rat, and lo! despite my will,

In the weary fight I had clean lost sight of the man I sought to kill.

'Twas so far away, that evil day when I prayed to the Prince of Gloom

For the savage strength and the sullen length of life to work his doom.

Nor sign nor word had I seen or heard, and it happed so long ago;

My youth was gone and my memory wan, and I willed it even so.

It fell one night in the waning light by the Yukon's oily flow,

I smoked and sat as I marvelled at the sky's port-winey glow;

Till it paled away to an absinthe gray, and the river seemed to shrink,

All wobbly flakes and wriggling snakes and goblin eyes a-wink.

'Twas weird to see and it 'wildered me in a queer, hypnotic dream,

Till I saw a spot like an inky blot come floating down the stream;

It bobbed and swung; it sheered and hung; it romped round in a ring;

It seemed to play in a tricksome way; it sure was a merry thing.

In freakish flights strange oily lights came fluttering round its head,

Like butterflies of a monster size--then I knew it for the Dead.

Its face was rubbed and slicked and scrubbed as smooth as a shaven pate;

In the silver snakes that the water makes it gleamed like a dinner-plate.

It gurgled near, and clear and clear and large and large it grew;

It stood upright in a ring of light and it looked me through and through.

It weltered round with a woozy sound, and ere I could retreat,

With the witless roll of a sodden soul it wantoned to my feet.

And here I swear by this Cross I wear, I heard that "floater" say:

"I am the man from whom you ran, the man you sought to slay.

That you may note and gaze and gloat, and say `Revenge is sweet',

In the grit and grime of the river's slime I am rotting at your feet.

"The ill we rue we must e'en undo, though it rive us bone from bone;

So it came about that I sought you out, for I prayed I might atone.

I did you wrong, and for long and long I sought where you might live;

And now you're found, though I'm dead and drowned, I beg you to forgive."

So sad it seemed, and its cheek-bones gleamed, and its fingers flicked the shore;

And it lapped and lay in a weary way, and its hands met to implore;

That I gently said: "Poor, restless dead, I would never work you woe;

Though the wrong you rue you can ne'er undo, I forgave you long ago."

Then, wonder-wise, I rubbed my eyes and I woke from a horrid dream.

The moon rode high in the naked sky, and something bobbed in the stream.

It held my sight in a patch of light, and then it sheered from the shore;

It dipped and sank by a hollow bank, and I never saw it more.

This was the tale he told to me, that man so warped and gray,

Ere he slept and dreamed, and the camp-fire gleamed in his eye in a wolfish way--

That crystal eye that raked the sky in the weird Auroral ray.

Related Lyrics

Random lyrics: The Galveston Rose , The Gold Rush Is Over, The Golden Rocket, The Greatest Sin, The Highest Bidder , THE LAST RIDE, The Law Of Love, The Mysterious Lady From St. Martinique, The Name Of the Game Was Love , The New Blue Velvet Band, The Next Voice You Hear, The Night I Stole Old Sammy Morgans Gin, The Only Rose , The Owl And I, The Party of The Secong Part, The Prisoned Cowboy, The Reindeer Boogie , THE RESTLESS ONE, The Rhumba Boogie, The Runt, The Shooting of Dan McGrew , The Spell Of The Yukon, The Streamlined Cannonball, The Sun Has Gone Down On Our Love, The Texas Cowboy , The Texas Silver Zephyr, The Wishing Well, The Wreck Of The Number Nine, The Wreck Of The Old 97 , The Wreck Of The Old 97, The Yodeling Cowboy, Then I Turned And Walked Slowly Away, These Hands , These Tears Are Not For You, These Things Shall Pass, This Cold War With You, This Train , Tip Of My Fingers, Tiptoeing, To You My Sweetheart, Aloha, Today I Started Loving You Again , Top Of The Morning, Trade Winds, Tragic Romance, Travelin Blues , Treasure Untold, Trouble In Mind, Trouble, Trouble, Trouble, Tuck Away My Lonesome Blues , Tumbling Tumbleweeds,

Other Hank Snow song Lyrics
(seashores Of) Old Mexico Lyrics
90 Miles An Hour Lyrics
90 Miles An Hour (Down A Dead End Street) Lyrics
A Daisy Day Lyrics
A Good Gal Is Good To Find Lyrics
A Letter To Santa Claus Lyrics
A Little Box Of Pine On The 729 Lyrics
A Message From The Trade Winds Lyrics
A Scale To Measure Love Lyrics
Act 1, Act 2, Act 3 Lyrics
Address Unknown Lyrics
...Show All

Other Artists
Hank The Knife The Jets Lyrics
Hank Thompson Lyrics
Hank Williams Lyrics
Hank Williams III Lyrics
Hank Williams Jr. Lyrics
Hank Williams Sr. Lyrics
Hankey Mr Lyrics
Hanna Berglund Lyrics
Hanna Pakarinen Lyrics
Hannah Lyrics