Sailor-Boy's Song

Away, away, o'er the bounding sea     My spirit flies like a gull;     For I know my Mary is watching for me,     And the moon is bright and full.     She sits on the rock by the sounding shore,     And gazes over the sea;     And she sighs, "Will my sailor-boy come no more?     Will he never come back to me?"     The moonbeams play in her raven hair;     And the soft breeze kisses her brow;     But if your sailor-boy, love, were there,     He would kiss your sweet lips I trow.     And mother she sits in the cottage-door;     But her heart is out on the sea;     And she sighs, "Will my sailor-boy come no more?     Will he never come back to me?"     Ye winds that over the billows roam     With a low and sullen moan,     O swiftly come to waft me home;     O bear me back to my own.     For long have I been on the billowy deep,     On the boundless waste of sea;     And while I sleep there are two who weep,     And watch and pray for me.     When the mad storm roars till the stoutest fear     And the thunders roll over the sea,     I think of you, Mary and mother dear,     For I know you are thinking of me.     Then blow, ye winds, for my swift return;     Let the tempest roar o'er the main;     Let the billows yearn and the lightning burn;     They will hasten me home again.