Oh, have you been to Rio Grande, or yet to ‘Frisco town,
Or west away to Mobile Bay where they roll the cotton down?
Oh, have you been in any place where sailors come from sea,
And saw you there my only love that sends no word to me?
Oh, does he walk with a yaller gal forgetting to be true,
Or drink with pals in sailor-town as many sailors do?
Does he with strangers fill his glass and to them sing his song,
And never think of his only love —
His only love, his only love —
And never think of his own true love that waits for him so long?
“Yes, I have seen your only love, and spoken with him also,
And it wasn’t very far away nor very long ago;
He said, ‘Oh, tell my gal at home to forget me if she can
And she’d better get another love that ain’t a sailorman'”
“But he doesn’t walk with no yaller gal, I tell you straight and plain,
And there’s never a pal in sailor-town ‘ll drink with him again;
We buried him out of an open boat a hundred miles from shore,
And you’d better get another love —
Another love, another love —
Oh, you’d better get another love, for he’ll come home no more.”
“Our ship was sunk in the light of day, as plenty more have been,
In the North Atlantic homeward bound by a pirate submarine,
And we was drifting many a day and food and drink had none,
When a cruiser picked us up at last at the rising o’ the sun.”
“Your man was first to go, poor chap, he was crazed-like in his head,
Along o’ drinking sea-water, for all the captain said,
‘I’ll marry my lass with a ring,’ he’d say, ‘when I get in from sea,
And she shall be my only love —
My only love, my only love —
Oh, she shall be my own dear love, for I know that she loves me.'”
Oh, cold, cold are the Atlantic deeps, and very wide the sea,
With all its weight of stormy waves between my love and me;
And wide and deep the tide o’ time a-rolling year on year,
But there’ll be no parting after death for us that loved so dear.
Oh. Many a sailor will come home, and many a ship from sea,
But never a ship on any tide will bring my lad to me,
And the long, long days they’ll come and go, and the lonely years pass by,
But I will keep my only love —
My only love, my only love —
Oh, I will keep my only love until the day I die!
(Cicely Fox Smith)
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Based on Topics: Love Poems, Man Poems, Light Poems, Death & Dying Poems, Place Poems, Home PoemsBased on Keywords: frisco, sailorman, mobile, yaller, cruiser, sea-water, a-rolling, sailor-town