Quite a few years ago, I came to associate Roger Whittaker’s song “The Last Farewell” with the West Indies. Since my visit to St. Lucia last November, I’ve been associating it with my ancestors’ homeland.
Here’s a link to the song, after which I’ll paste in changes I made to the lyrics (which I not so humbly think are an improvement), along with a fourth verse that I wrote. I stumbled on the paper I wrote them on today. I hope the changes to the lyrics are enough that this doesn’t violate copyright. Unfortunately, WordPress is not letting get the spacing I want between stanzas.
The Last Farewell
A ship lies rigged and ready in the harbor
Tomorrow for old England she sails,
far away from you land of endless sunshine
to my homeland with its rainy skies and gales.
And I must be aboard that ship tomorrow,
though my heart breaks as we come to this farewell.
For you are beautiful
and I have loved you dearly
more dearly than the spoken word can tell.
[repeat refrain]
I hear that there’s a wicked war a blazing,
And the taste of war I know so very well.
Even now I see the foreign flags a-raising.
Our guns are aimed as we sail into hell.
Our guns are aimed as we sail into hell.
I have no fear of death, it holds no sorrow,
yet how bitter do I find this last farewell.
For you are beautiful
and I have loved you dearly
more dearly than the spoken word can tell.
[repeat]
Though death and darkness gather all about me,
and my ship be torn apart upon the sea,
I shall smell again the fragrance of these islands
in the heaving wave that brought me once to thee.
Or should I return safe home again to England,
I’ll have memories undimmed by this farewell.
For you are beautiful
and I have loved you dearly
more dearly than the spoken word can tell.
[repeat]
My darling it’s been decades since we parted.
I pray the years have kept you safe and well.
I never could return to what we started
once my life became a clanging carousel.
But daily there are scenes that I still borrow
from a treasure buried deep at our farewell.
For you are beautiful
and I have loved you dearly
more dearly than the spoken word can tell.
[repeat]
Yes, you are beautiful,
and I still love you dearly,
more dearly than the spoken work can tell.