Sailor Town

Along the wharves of Sailor Town a singing whisper goes Of the wind among the anchored ships, the wind that gently blows. Of a broad, brimming water where Summer day has died Like a wounded whale a-sounding in the sunset tide. Chorus: I dreamed a dream in Sailor Town, a foolish dream and vain Of ships and men departed, of old times come again, And an old song in Sailor Town, an old song to sing, When shipmate meets with shipmate in the evening. There's a big China liner gleaming like a gull And her lit ports a-flashing along the long, gaunt hull Of a Blue-Funnel freighter with her derricks stark and still And a tall barque a-loading down at the lumber mill. And in the shops of Sailor Town is every kind of thing That the sailors buy there or the sailors bring. Shackles for a sea-chest and pink cockatoos Aye, and fifty-cent alarm clocks and also dead men's shoes. You can hear the gulls a-crying and the cheerful noise Of a concertina playing and a singer's voice, And the wind's song and the tide's song crooning soft and low The rum old songs in Sailor Town that the seamen know.