Welcome back to the Daily Poem here on the Close Reeds Podcast Network. I'm David Kern.

Today here on the podcast, I'm going to be giving you another example of a folk song,

American folk song. Remember that we are doing our folk song, our American folk song,

and spirituals competition for our younger

listeners. Remember, so if you want to memorize your 12 lines of American folklore, folk songs,

memorize that, record a recitation and post it on social media with hashtag TDP contest.

But make sure you do that by June 15th, and that week we will choose some winners.

So don't forget about that.

Today, I'm going to be reading a poem, which you are most familiar with, the chorus.

It's actually a song, or it was a song, and it's a folk ballad called, Oh, My Darling, Clementine.

You are probably familiar with the chorus, which

is, I'll read here in a second. You've probably sung it to yourself many times over the years.

It's usually credited to somebody named Percy Montrose in the 1880s, although the name Barker

Bradford sometimes comes into it. And according to Wikipedia, the song is believed to have

been based on another song called Down by the River Lived a Maiden by H.S. Thompson from a couple

decades earlier. And also according to Wikipedia, members of the Western writers of America

chose it as one of the top 100 Western songs of all time. Bobby Darren did versions of it.

He did so many different versions have been

performed of it over the years.

But I want to look at it as a poem today.

It's a four stands a poem if you include the chorus,

and it goes like this.

...