BIRD IN A GILDED CAGE, A
(Harry Von Tilzer (m) Arthur Lamb (l) 1899)




The ballroom was fill'd with fashion's throng,
It shone with a thousand lights,
And there was a woman who passed along,
The fairest of all the sights;
A girl to her lover then softly sighed,
"There's riches at her command",
"But she married for wealth, not for love", he cried,
"Tho she lives in a mansion grand".

She's only a bird in a gilded cage,
A beautiful sight to see,
You may think she's happy and free from care,
She's not tho' she seems to be,
'Tis sad when you think of her wasted life,
For youth cannot mate with age,
And her beauty was sold for an old man's gold,
She's a bird in a gilded cage.

The beautiful woman surveyed the scene,
Her flatterers by the score;
Her gems were the purest, her gown divine,
So what could a woman want more.
But memory brings back the face of a lad,
Whose love she had Turned aside,
But happiness cannot be bought with gold,
Altho' she's a rich man's bride.

She's only a bird in a gilded cage,
A beautiful sight to see,
You may think she's happy and free from care,
She's not tho' she seems to be,
'Tis sad when you think of her wasted life,
For youth cannot mate with age,
And her beauty was sold for an old man's gold,
She's a bird in a gilded cage.

I stood in a churchyard just at eve,
When sunset adorned the west;
And looked at the people who'd come to give
For lov'd ones now laid at rest.
A tall marble monument mark'd the grave,
Of one who'd been fashion's queen,
And I thought she is happier here at rest,
Than to have people say, when seen:

She's only a bird in a gilded cage,
A beautiful sight to see,
You may think she's happy and free from care,
She's not tho' she seems to be,
'Tis sad when you think of her wasted life,
For youth cannot mate with age,
And her beauty was sold for an old man's gold,
She's a bird in a gilded cage.




(Contributed by Peter Akers - January 2016)