When I was a boy,
I was destined to rule.
Divine right of the king
Means there wasn't a school.
I'd sit on my throne,
And long to look at the clouds,
And laugh at the pictures in them;
Now I'm under this shroud.

They say that a man
Is supposed to work to his bone,
But I'm only just a boy
Taken from his home.

When I was a boy,
I was put on a ship;
One leg of the triangle,
My back, they would whip.
I was brought to the new world
Where the faces weren't black,
And the flag had thirteen stripes;
That match the ones on my back.

They say that a man
Is supposed to work to his bone,
But I'm only just a boy
Taken from his home.