Thunder rolled and the rain came down St. Mary St.
But on this day thousands stood their ground
A silent crowd whose heads are bowed in helplessness
Bid farewell
And the wife of a Richard Penderyn
Supported there too weak to stand
Disbelieving anger and sorrow
For her innocent man, an innocent man

She says, lift me up oh lift me boys
Let me see the one I love
Lift me up oh lift me now
Let me see the man I love one more time

Broken by starvation and poverty
While the iron masters sip their wine
Young and old together marched for justice
But the bayonet and the bullet’s what they find
“Bread or blood” had cried a collier
“We’ve come too far lads now to run”
But in our Merthyr town in 1831
They were cut down by the government gun
And in the midst of senseless slaughter
One soldier wounded in the thigh
Who later swore on oath at the trial
That Dic Penderyn was not the guy
And though he stood for everything they wanted
And rose with his people on that day
It could not have been he that harmed the soldier
But some there with a grudge put him away,
Said they’d stitch him up some day
Despite petitions and cries for mercy
All that the facts had to say
Neither king nor his parliament would listen
Even the judge was turned away
Hey Lord Melbourne how did you sleep then
With all that evidence in your face
Well you shot down twenty-four so why not hang someone?
Got to keep those workers in their place
He slowly climbs the steps to the gallows pole
The last few moments of a life
His eyes survey the crowd of gallant Welsh
Looking for his wife, he can’t see his wife

She says, lift me up oh lift me boys
Let me see the one I love
Lift me up oh lift me boys
Let me see the man I love one more time

So louder and longer than the sound of guns
Is the memory of what was done
You can only trample people down for so long
Time will show you have not won
And long before all this on a hill in Palestine
They strung another one up they say was a friend of yours and mine
Dying in the place of another one
But in the morning comes the sun
In the morning the sun

Lift me up oh lift me now
Let me see the one I love
Lift me up oh lift me now
Let me see the one I love one more time

Lift me up oh lift me boys
Let me see the one I love
Lift me up oh lift me boys
Let me see the one I love one more time