Sailor Home from the Sea by Dorothy Hewett.
This was originally a poem written by the great author, protester, playwright and wonderful lady Dorothy Hewett in the early 1960’s when she and Merv Lilley were living in Perth Western Australia. At that time Merv was a mercantile seaman and traveling up and around the north western coast of Australia. The poem was written as a welcome home to Merv from one of his voyages and was the very first tune that I had ever written. I was lucky to have known them both and saw them for the last time when they had moved across to the Blue Mountains in New South Wales. Martyn
Sailor Home from The Sea (Cock of the North)
Words by Dorothy Hewett tune by Martyn Wyndham-Read
Oh cock of the north with a dream in his hand
My love has come home to this beautiful land
He bursts through the door with his eyes like the sun
And his kit bag crammed full with the treasures he’s won.
A coral from Broome and a tall Darwin tale
A pearl and a clam and the jaws of a whale
My kitchen is full with the smell of the sea
And the leaping green fishes my love brings to me.
Oh tumble your treasures from Darwin and Broome
And fill with your glory this straight little room
With the sun of the morning ablaze on his chest
My love has come home from the north of north west.
And deep in our bed we will lie and we’ll be
We’ll kiss and we’ll listen to the rain on the sea
Warm as the summer we’ve lived winter long
My love has come home like King Solomon’s song.