This song was written by Stephen Foster and published in 1854. In the mid 1850's, Pittsburgh was in the grip of out of control unemployment and disease; cholera one summer killed 400 people. To help ends meet, the Foster family took into their already crowded home a minister.

Out of the blue and if only briefly, Foster saw poor people as his neighbors. Suddenly, their "pleading looks" created a demand for his attention. Their "frail forms fainting at the door" called for companionship — "while we all sup sorrow with the poor."

Hard Times Come Again No More

chorus:

’Tis the song, the sigh of the weary
Hard times, hard times, come again no more
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door
Oh, hard times come again no more

verses:

Let us pause in life’s pleasures and count its many tears
While we all sup sorrow with the poor
There’s a song that will linger forever in our ears
Oh, hard times come again no more

(chorus)

While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay
There are frail forms fainting at the door
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say
Oh, hard times come again no more

(chorus)

There’s a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away
With a worn heart whose better days are o’er
Though her voice would be merry, ’tis sighing all the day
Oh, hard times come again no more

(chorus)

’Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave
’Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore
’Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave
Oh, hard times come again no more