by John Masefield (1878 - 1967)

Port of many ships
Language: English 
It's a sunny pleasant anchorage is Kingdom Come
Where the crew is always laying after with double tots of rum
And there's dancing and there's fiddling of every kind o' sort
It's a fine palce for sailormen is that there port
And I wish (I wish), oh I wish, I wish as I was there.

The winds is never nothin' more than jest light airs
N' no one gets belayin' pinned, n' no one never swears
Yer free to loaf and laze around, yer pipe atween yer lips 
Lollin' on the fo'c'sle, sonny, lookin' at the ships
And I wish (I wish), oh I wish, I wish as I was there.

For ridin' in the anchorage the ships of all the world
Have got one anchor down and all sails furled
All the sunken hookers and the crews as took 'n' died
They lays there merry, sonny, swingin' with the tide
And I wish (I wish), oh I wish, I wish as I was there.

Drowned old wooden hookers green wi' drippin' wrack
Ships as never fetched to port, as never came back
Swingin' to the blushin' tide, dippin' to the swell,
N' the crews all singin' sonny, beatin' on the bell
And I wish (I wish), oh I wish, I wish as I was there.

First published in Speaker, August 1902

Text Authorship:

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

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Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

  • Also set in English, [adaptation] ; composed by J. Frederick Keel.

Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]

This text was added to the website: 2008-12-30
Line count: 20
Word count: 216