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
It's 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

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

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, it's sighing all the day
Oh hard times, come again no more

It's a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave
It's a wail that is heard upon the shore
It's a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave
Oh hard times, come again no more