The Rendezvous

A pub there is of far renown, A pub that seamen know In every street of Sailortown Or sea where they in ships go down From Clyde to Callao. And there they say if a man should wait A twelvemonth and a day That all his shipmates soon or late Would surely pass that way. Both night and noon the door swings wide To the noisy dockside's din, Both night and noon with every tide The sailormen blow in. They come with talk of ships and men And lean upon the bar And yarn and drink and yarn again Of ports both near and far. But theirs are ships I never spoke And trades to me unknown, And all they see is a grizzled bloke That drinks his drink alone. They neither pause nor listen when From all the oceans home Between the tides the sailormen I wait alone for come - Come in with laughter on their lips And names I used to know And speech of men and speech of ships Forgotten long ago. No door swings wide to let them through, No eye but mine can see That all the shipmates ever I knew Blow in to drink with me.