| AKA | |
| First Published | 1871 |
| Lyrics | R.Lee | Music | GW Moore | Roud | RN24512 |
| Music Hall Performers | GH Chirgwin 1880s-1919 |
| Folk performances | Source Singers Ernie? 1960, Sussex England unknown male, 1950 – 69, Worcestershire England Frank Hinchcliffe, 1970, Yorkshire England Stanley Marsden, 1972 Yorkshire England |
I am but a poor blind boy Still my heart is full of joy Though I never saw the light Or the flowers they call so bright I can hear the sweet bird sing And the wild bee on the wing Bird and bee and summer wind Sing to me because I'm blind. They love me, yes they love me And to me they are so kind They love me, yes they love me. Because I am blind. With my fingers I can trace Every line on Mother's face Oft her smile upon me beams I can see it in my dreams Father takes me on his knee Brothers Oh so kind to me Sister's arms around me twinned Kisses me because I'm blind. This morning as in bed I lay Mother softly came to pray Said for me such pretty prayers And I felt her holy tears Falling gently down on me And she kissed me, so you see Every one to me is kind And they love me for I'm blind.
It may seem strange looking back at Victorian entertainment, that the blackface minstrel troupes were far more respectable than the Halls. Queen Victoria regularly attended these entertainments in which white performers would cover their faces with burnt cork and mimic what they thought of as the comic antics of black people. Within such entertainments, as well as broad comedy there would always be a tear-jerking sad song or two. This schmaltzy number was originally written for the Moore and Burgess minstrels, though it was later adopted by GH Chirgwin a blackface comedian who performed on the Music Hall stage.
A number of folk songs were originally written for minstrel shows, and that might be a suitable subject for a different website. That said, even limiting the discussion to the scope of this site, there are a significant number of folksongs which come from the minstrels via the Halls, another famous example would be Buttercup Joe.
George H Chirgwin (1854-1924) first appeared in a minstrel troupe at the age of six years old. Blacked-up white performers were a regular feature of musical entertainment until the late 20th century. Chirgwin sported a blackface with a white diamond shape around one eye, and was promoted as “The White-eyed Kaffir”. He was known for singing in a high falsetto voice, and pun laden humour which he supplemented with a number of tear-jerking songs including this one, and My Fiddle is My Sweetheart.
The Blind Boy has been found in the repertoire of late 20th-century source singers in Yorkshire and Sussex, and it’s included in a list of “old songs” collated from the readers of a Canadian newspaper.
Sources:
- Entries in the Roud Indexes at the Vaughn Williams Memorial Library: https://archives.vwml.org/search/all:single[folksong-broadside-books]/0_50/all/score_desc/extended-roudNo_tr%3A24512
- Kilgarrif Sing Us
- Pulling They were singing
- Lyrics: monologues.co.uk
- Image wikivisually
GH Chirgwin sings it:
Last Updated on October 22, 2020 by John Baxter | Published: July 19, 2020
