Here in Anaheim, people call Disneyland "The Mouse." Lots of people who live here have worked there. My mother, teachers at school, as Robeson might say, "Working for the Mouse all night and day"
I’m definitely going to get some brownie points when show Moorson’s song to my history teacher because Moorson’s song could be about the Industrial Revolution.
At first the narrator lived on a farm, just like at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution
“When I were young I awlus thowt
I'd bide 'mong t' roots an' corn.
But I've bin forced to work i' towns,”
The narrator had to “flee” the farm. Again, very much like in the Industrial Revolution.
“I couldn't gie up t' lass I loved,
To t' town we had to flee:”
The narrator went to different cities, and he worked as a sailor. He worked in forges, mills and collieries, or he managed to avoid them. I don’t know which.
“I' Bradforth, Keighley, Rotherham,
I've kept my barns an' lass.
I've travelled all three Ridin's round,
And once I went to sea:
Frae forges, mills, an' coalin' boats,”
The narrator’s work in Barnsley sounds dangerous, but I suspect that if he were able to stay on the farm, it would have also been dangerous.
“Furnaces thrast out tongues o' fire,
An' roared like t' wind on t' fell.
I've sammed up coals i' Barnsley pits,
Wi' muck up to my knee:”
Wikipedia has an article about a Frederic William Moorman, (1872–1918) Professor of English Language at the University of Leeds from 1912 to 1918. Could he be the song’s author?
I had expected to never find the word, Gibbet, again, but Halifax gained fame for its Gibbet in the seventeenth century. American history books normally call that the Renaissance.
A Google Book,
A Yorkshire Miscellany, has some information about the original alliteration of Hell, Hull and Halifax (note the different order) by John Taylor, a seventeenth century poet.
The link connects to the page after the beginning of the information. I think that Taylor wrote his poem about the Gibbet. Moorson must have written his poem about life in general