New England's Annoyances

DESCRIPTION: "New England's annoyances you that would know them, Pray ponder these verses that briefly doth show them; The place where we live is a wilderness wood." The poet speaks of hard work in the fields and of poverty, but suggests keeping "a contended mind."
AUTHOR: probably Edward Johnson (1598-1672), according to Lemay
EARLIEST DATE: 1774 (Massachusetts Spy, according to Lemay and Cohen); probably written c. 1643
KEYWORDS: work hardtimes nonballad
FOUND IN: US(NE)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Cohen-AmericanFolkSongsARegionalEncyclopedia1, pp. 42-43, "New England's Annoyances" (1 text)
NOTES [37 words]: Cohen, following J. A. Leo Lemay, suggests that this is America's first folk song -- that is, the first song of American origin that can be shown to have gone into oral tradition. But the tradition was pretty thin.... - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: CAFS1042

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