Johnny Cash Album: Ride This Train Track: Dorraine of Ponchartrain
Dorraine of Ponchartrain Lyrics
Ride this train to Bogaloosa Louisiana see these swamps and forest Man's never set foot in a lot of it You'll find aligator mink coon possum squirrel otter and the lakes're full of fish You'll find places so virgin and fresh That you'd think the Lord just created it yesterday As a matter of fact some people say when this world was made A whole lot of it just must have looked like southern Louisiana does now In 1788 I left Halifax Nova Scotia with about two hundred other Acadians We made a long tiring journey south In our party of two hundred there was this beautiful girl That I just haven't quite been able to forget Dorraine was her name and Dorraine and I were Well we were kinda pledged to each other And then we said when we got to the promised land We'd build us a house and someday we'd have The biggest sugar-cane plantation in the country And I used to make Dorraine blush When I'd tell her we'd raise the biggest family in the country too
As I walked by the lake one day by chance my Dorraine passed my way Then she and I walked hand in hand on the banks of Ponchartrain I pinned a flower on her heart I swore we'd never be apart She vowed her love forever and as I kissed her did the same Dorraine my Dorraine my dark haired little angel my belle of Ponchartrain We sat down on the dock and with our hearts and fingers locked We laughed and talked and joked about when our names are the same And joking I said honey are you marrying me for money And it took just one quick look to tell it hurt my dear Dorraine She jumped and stood above me and she cried why you don't love me I'm rowing home across the lake you won't see me again I called and called some more but she rowed fast from the shore And the clouds brought by a wind began to rain on Ponchartrain Dorrain I called Dorrain come back my little angel my belle of Ponchartrain The storm should make her learn that she should make a swift return But as the rain fell harder I lost sight of my Dorraine As panic gripped my heart I drew the oars and made my start To look for her on raging waters and the rain on Ponchartrain At darkness I still called but no one heard my cries at all And when the daybreak came then others helped me look for my Dorraine But there was not a thing afloat except the oars from her rowboat For all was lost upon the choppy waves and rain on Ponchartrain Now I come day after day to where my sweetheart rowed away And I gaze across the water of the rainy Ponchartrain Just one thing and nothing more ever floated back to shore Twas this flower I hold it is the one I pinned on my Dorraine Dorraine my Dorraine my dark haired little angel my belle of Ponchartrain
