Sweethearts and Wives (Smith, set by M. Head) (The Lied and Art Song Texts Page: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)


The very first voyage as ever I made
I went to sea in the East Coast trade
And I courted a gal at Seaton Sluice
If her name warn't Lizzie it must ha' been Luce
So I did!

And then I sailed in a Colonies clipper
With a rare old rip of a racing skipper,
And there warn't no sense nor there warn't no use
A-courtin' a gal at Seaton Sluice;
So I looked for another down Melbourne way
If her name warn't Kitty, it must ha' been May
So I did!

Oh next I sailed in a pearlin' brig
To the South Sea Isles both little and big,
Where it warn't no use, say what you may,
A-courtin' a gal down Melbourne way.
So I didn't worry with her no longer
But I soon picked up with a gal in Tonger,
An island gal as brown as a berry
Don't know her name, but I called her "Cherry", "Cherry"
So I did!

But last I signed in a Liverpool liner,
Go where you will and you won't find a finer!
And it's time, thinks I, to be settlin' down,
So I married a widder in Monkey Town,
With a bit in the bank and a "corner off"
And when I'm ashore now I lives like a toff.
And as for the gal at Seaton Sluice
I 'ope she ain't waitin', for that ain't no use,
And as for the ones at Montreal and Tonger
and Taltal and Melbourne and all,
And all the whole boilin' from France to Fiji,
I 'ope they're all married and 'appy like me.
So I do!

Input by Thomas Dymit

Authorship

Cicely Fox Smith (1882-1954)

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

Michael Head (1900-1976)

Six Sea Songs

Date added to the website: 2008-11-19.

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