Dorraine Of Ponchartrain

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

Dorraine I called Dorraine

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