The Island: Come & See / The Landlord's Daughter / You'll Not Feel The Drowning

(album: The Crane Wife - 2006)

[Come & See]

There's an island hidden in the sound
Lapping currents lay your boat to ground
Affix your barb and bayonet
The curlews carve their Arabesques
And sorrow fills the silence all around
Come and see

There's a harbor lost within the reeds
A jetty caught in over-hanging trees
Among the bones of cormorants
No boot mark here nor finger prints
The rivers roll down to a soundless sea
Come and see
Come and see

The tides will come and go
With this bare waking eye
Who rose like the wind
Though we know for sure
Amidst this fading light
We'll not go home again
Come and see
Come and see

In the lowlands, nestled in the heat
A briar cradle rocks it's babe to sleep
Its contents watched by Sycorax
And patagon in paralax
A foretold rumbling sounds below the deep
Come and see
Come and see

The tides will come and go
Witnessed by no waking eye
Who rose like the wind
Though we know for sure
Amidst this fading light
We'll not go home again
Come and see
Come and see

[The Landlord's Daughter]

As I was rambled
Down by the water
I spied in sable
The landlord's daughter
Produced my pistol, then my saber
To make no whistle or thou will be murdered

She cursed, she shivered
She cried for mercy,
"My gold and silver if thou will release me!"

I'll take no gold miss, I'll take no silver
I'll take those sweet lips, and I'll deliver

[You'll Not Feel The Drowning]

I will dress your eyelids
With dimes upon your eyes
Lay you close to water
Green your grave will rise
Go to sleep little ugly
Go to sleep you little fool
Forty-winking in the belfry
You'll not feel the drowning
You'll not feel the drowning

Forget you once had sweethearts
They've forgotten you
Think you not on parents
They've forgotten too
Go to sleep now little ugly
Go to sleep now you little fool
Forty-winking in the belfry
You'll not feel the drowning
You'll not feel the drowning

Go to sleep little ugly
Go to sleep little fool
Forty-winking in the belfry
You'll not feel the drowning
You'll not feel the drowning

Hear you now the captain
Heed his sorrowed cry
"Weight upon your eyelids
As dimes laid on your eyes"