Finnegan's Wake

:For the book by James Joyce, see Finnegans_Wake.

Related Topics:
James Joyce - Finnegans_Wake

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"Finnegan's Wake" is a song, called a street ballad, that arose perhaps in the 1850s. It is one of several mock-Irish stage songs that were very popular in 19th-century American vaudeville. It is famous for being parodied in James Joyce's masterwork, Finnegans Wake, where the comic resurrection becomes symbolic of a universal cycle of life. Whiskey, which brought both Finnegan's fall and his resurrection, is derived from Irish uisce beatha ({{IPA2|?i?k?? ?b?ah?}}), meaning "water of life." So too, the word "wake" is both of a passing and of a new rising. Joyce removed the apostrophe in the title to assert an active process in which a multiplicity of "Finnegans," that is, all of us, wake, that is, arise after falling. It also featured as the climax of the primary storyline in Philip José Farmer's award-winning novella, Riders of the Purple Wage.

Related Topics:
Street ballad - 1850s - Vaudeville - James Joyce - Finnegans Wake - Whiskey - Irish - Uisce beatha - Apostrophe - Philip José Farmer - Novella - Riders of the Purple Wage

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Finnegan's Wake

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:Tim Finnegan lived in Walkin Street

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:A gentleman Irish, mighty odd;

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:He'd a beautiful brogue so rich and sweet

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:And to rise in the world he carried a hod.

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:Now Tim had a sort o' the tipplin' way

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:With a love of the liquor poor Tim was born

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:And to help him on with his work each day

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:He'd a drop of the craythur ev'ry morn.

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Chorus

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:Whack fol the dah now dance to your partner

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:Welt the flure, your trotters shake;

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:Wasn't it the truth I told you

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:Lots of fun at Finnegan's wake!

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:One mornin' Tim was rather full

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:His head felt heavy which made him shake,

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:He fell from the ladder and broke his skull

Related Topics:
Ladder - Skull

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:And they carried him home his corpse to wake.

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:They wrapped him up in a nice clean sheet

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:And laid him out across the bed,

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:With a gallon of whiskey at his feet

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:And a barrel of porter at his head.

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:His friends assembled at the wake

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:And Mrs. Finnegan called for lunch,

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:First they brought in tea and cake

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:Then pipes, tobacco and whiskey punch.

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:Biddy O'Brien began to cry

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:"Such a nice clean corpse, did you ever see?

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:"Arrah, Tim, mavourneen, why did you die?"

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:"Ah, shut your gob" said Paddy McGee!

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:Then Biddy O'Connor took up the job

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:"O Biddy," says she, "You're wrong, I'm sure":

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:Biddy gave her a belt in the gob

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:And left her sprawlin' on the floor.

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:And then a mighty war did rage

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:'Twas woman to woman and man to man,

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:Shillelagh law did all engage

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:And the row and the ruction soon began.

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:Then Mickey Maloney ducked his head

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:When a naggin of whiskey flew at him,

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:It missed, and fallin' on the bed

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:The liquor scattered over Tim.

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:Bedad he revives! See how he rises!

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:Timothy rising from the bed:

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:"Whirl your whiskey around like blazes!

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:Thanam o'n Dhoul! D'ye think I'm dead?"

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(An alternate choice for Thanam o'n Dhoul (Irish d'anam don Diabhal, "your soul to the devil") is Thunderin' Jaysus.)

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