"Pore Jud Is Daid" is a song featured in the 1955 film Oklahoma! with music composed by Richard Rodgers and lyrics written by Oscar Hammerstein II. In the film, Curly McLain (Gordon MacRae) pays Jud Fry (Rod Steiger) a visit in his smokehouse and sings this wry, goading eulogy to belittle the menacing farmhand into taking his own life.
Lyrics[]
Curly:
Pore Jud is daid
Pore Jud Fry is daid
All gather 'round his coffin now and cry
He had a heart of gold
And he wasn't very old—
Oh, why did such a feller hive to die?
Pore Jud is daid
Pore Jud Fry is daid
He's lookin' oh so peaceful and serene—
Jud:
And serene!
Curly:
He's all laid out to rest
With his hands acrost his chest
His fingernails have never been so clean!
Then the preacher'd get up and he'd say
Folks, we are gathered here to moan
And groan over our brother Jud Fry
Who hung hisself up by a rope in his smokehouse
Then there'd be weepin' and wailin' from some of those women
Then he'd say
Jud was the most misunderstood man in this here territory
People used to think he was a mean ugly feller
And they called him a dirty skunk and an ornery pig stealer
But the folks 'at really knowed him
Knowed that beneath them two dirty shirts he always wore
There beat a heart as big as all outdoors
Jud:
As big as all outdoors
Curly:
Jud Fry loved his feller man
Jud:
He loved his feller man
Curly:
He loved the birds of the air and the beasts of the field
He loved the mice and the vermin in the barns
And he treated the rats like equals, which was right
And he loved little children
He loved everybody and everything in the world!
Only, only he never let on, so nobody ever knowed it
Pore Jud is daid
Pore Jud Fry is daid
His friends'll weep and wail fer miles around
Jud:
Miles around
Curly:
The daisies in the dell
Will give out a diff'rent smell
Because Pore Jud is underneath the ground
Jud:
Pore Jud is daid
A candle lights his haid
He's layin' in a coffin made of wood
Curly:
Wood
Jud:
And folks are feelin' sad
Cause they use to treat him bad
And now they know their friend is gone fer good
Curly:
Good
Both:
Pore Jud is daid
A candle lights his haid
Curly:
He's lookin' oh so purty and so nice
He looks like he's asleep
It's a shame that he won't keep
But it's summer and we're running out of ice
