[Verse 1] I am a young sailor who travels the sea My fever for prizes will no let me be So I cast off the shore like a load off a steed The circle of the water is all that I need [Verse 2] Oh dance all ye, dance all ye, water and foam My bough is the stage for your magic to roam And run all ye, run all ye, thunder and rain My sails hold the scars but do not hold the pain [Verse 3] I tighten my ropes to the wind that has blowed Giving the rudder the strength that he's owed And I travel, no peace, to the land I was born Hoping I will not receive her forlorn [Verse 4] I courted a maiden, not one year it's been She wants to be married, her dowery to spin "A family of boys and a girl," she would say "Would satisfy hunger as the youth has delayed" [Verse 5] But the mist of the harbour is solid as stone "If you don't return from your journeys alone
I'll spend every evening on Lockshire Sound Gazing for sails that are now homeward bound" [Verse 6] I fear that my absence is longer than said Been almost a year since I've slept in my bed But as I am approaching the Lockshire Sound I hope that my maiden soon will be found [Verse 7] "Oh excuse me, young lady, do you know of she? For I was away riding waves of the sea" "Yes, I do know the lady you speak I attended her wedding with flowers last week" [Verse 8] "Oh say it, young lady, you cannot be true For I have returned as I said I would do" But time does erode some firmness of soil A sapling will grow, if not it will toil [Verse 9] Her hunger for marriage, a family, indeed Was true to her word, was true to her need But I was just written in sand for the day Let Lockshire Sound wash it away