1. Let us pause in life's pleasures
   and count its many tears,
While we all sup sorrow with the poor:
There's a song that will linger
   forever in our ears;
Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.

Chorus
'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary;
Hard Times, Hard Times, come again no more:
Many days you have lingered
   around my cabin door;
Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.

2. While we seek mirth and beauty,
   and music light and gay,
There are frail forms fainting at the door:
Though their voices are silent,
   their pleading looks will say,
Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.

3. There's a pale drooping maiden
   who toils her life away,
With a worn heart whose better days are o'er:
Though her voice would be merry,
   'tis sighing all the day,
Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.

4. 'Tis a sigh that is wafted
   across the troubled wave,
'Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore,
'Tis a dirge that is murmured
   around the lowly grave,
Oh! Hard Times, come again no more.