Text: Martyn Joseph. Other. Dic Penderyn (The Ballad Of Richard Lewis).

Thunder rolled and the rain came down St. Mary St.

But on this day thousands stood their ground

A silent crowd who's heads are bowed in helplessness

Bid farewell

And the wife of a Richard Penderyn

Supported there to weak to stand

Disbelieving anger and sorrow

For her innocent man, an innocent man


She says, lift me up oh lift me boys

Let me see the one I love

Lift me up oh lift me now

Let me see the man I love one more time


Broken by starvation and poverty

While the iron masters sip their wine

Young and old together marched for justice

But the bayonet and the bullet's what they find

?Bread or blood? cried a collier

?We've come to far lads to run?

But in our Myther town in 1831

They were cut down by the government guns


And in the midst of senseless slaughter

One soldier wounded in the thigh

Who later swore on oath at the trial

That Dic Penderyn was not the guy

Though he had stood for everything they wanted

And rose up with his people on that day

It could not have been he that harmed the soldier

But some there with a grudge put him away,

Said they'd stitch him up one day

Despite petitions and cries for mercy

All that the facts had to say

Neither king nor his parliament would listen

Even the judge was turned away

Hey Lord Melbourne how did you sleep then

With all that evidence in your face

Well you shot down 24 so why not hang someone?

Got to keep those workers in their place

He slowly climbs the steps to the gallows pole

The last few moments of a life

His eyes survey the crowd of gallant Welsh

Looking for his wife, he can't see his wife


She says, lift me up oh lift me boys

Let me see the one I love

Lift me up oh lift me boys

Let me see the man I love one more time


But louder and longer than the sound of guns

Is the memory of what was done

You can only trample people down for so long

Time will show you have not won

And long before all this on a hill in Palestine

They strung another up they say was a friend of yours and mine

Dying in the place of another one

But in the morning comes the sun


Lift me up oh lift me now

Let me see the one I love

Lift me up oh lift me now

Let me see the one I love one more time