A Ballad of Nantucket

"Where go you, pretty Maggie,

Where go you in the rain?"

"I go to ask the sailors

Who sailed the Spanish main,

"If they have seen my Willie,

If he'll come back to me --

It is so sad to have him

A-sailing on the sea!"

"O Maggie, pretty Maggie,

Turn back to yonder town;

Your Willie's in the ocean,

A hundred fathoms down!

"His hair is turned to sea-pelt,

His eyes are changed to stones,

And twice two years have knitted

The coral round his bones!"

"The blossoms and the clover

Shall bloom and bloom again,

But never shall your lover

Come o'er the Spanish main!"

But Maggie never heeded,

For mournfully said she:

"It is so sad to have him

A-sailing on the sea!"

She left me in the darkness:

I heard the sea-gulls screech,

And burly winds were growling

WIth breakers on the beach!

The blythe bells of Nantucket,

What touching things they said,

When Maggie lay a-sleeping

With lilies round her head!

The parson preached a sermon,

And prayed and preached again -

But she had gone to Willie

Across the Spanish main!