Highwayman
I was a highwayman. Along the coach roads I did ride
With sword and pistol by my side
Many a young maid lost her baubles to my trade
Many a soldier shed his lifeblood on my blade
The bastards hung me in the spring of twenty-five
But I am still alive.
I was a sailor. I was born upon the tide
And with the sea I did abide.
I sailed a schooner round the Horn to Mexico
I went aloft and furled the mainsail in a blow
And when the yards broke off they said that I got killed
But I am living still.
I was a dam builder. Across the river deep and wide.
Where steel and water did collide
A place called Boulder on the wild Colorado
I slipped and fell into the wet concrete below
They buried me in that great tomb that knows no sound
But I am still around..I'll always be around..and around and around and
around and around
I fly a starship across the Universe divide
And when I reach the other side
I'll find a place to rest my spirit if I can
Perhaps I may become a highwayman again
Or I may simply be a single drop of rain
But I will remain
And I'll be back again, and again and again and again and again..
Dude, don't freak me out with such a drastic template change. I'm the only one allowed to do that. ;-p
ReplyDeleteI think I prefer the other highwayman, even if he did gallop away to the west.
ReplyDeleteI think I liked the Traveling Wilburys better.
ReplyDelete@Angelika - Well, then don't freak me out by showing up without glasses and your cap of many colors. I'm so glad you are safe after your accident on the ice. Slow down.
ReplyDelete@A. - Sigh. Oh, well, if you insist. "And still of a winter's night, they say, when the wind is in the trees, when the moon is a ghostly galleon tossed upon cloudy seas; when the road is a ribbon of moonlight over the purple moor, a highwayman comes riding, riding, riding - a highwayman comes riding, up to the old inn door. Over the cobbles he clatters and clangs in the dark inn yard; He taps with his whip on the shutters, but all is locked and barred; He whistles a tune to the window, and who should be waiting there? - but Bess the landlord's daughter, the landlords black-eyed daughter, plaiting a dark red love-knot into her long black hair."
Don't make me look it up. And don't make corrections. :)
@Descartes - I like the Wilburys too, but they didn't sing these words. Ah, I see, now. Ok, I liked the Texas Tornadoes better.
Tornados.
ReplyDeleteI was only going 35 before that accident. Had I been going my usual 55 on that road it would have been much worse & I wouldn't have been able to blog about it!
ReplyDeleteI see. Well, you still ended up in the ditch and being rescued by a silver fox lawman. So slow down.
ReplyDeleteI love that poem, the Highwayman.
ReplyDeleteMy mother had an album of a little known group called the Three D's who took poetry and put it to music. "Songs" I remember (fondly) include The Highwayman, Charge of the Light Brigade, and Annabelle Lee. I'd never seen the first poem before (though I was familiar with the other two) and had to find it.
@Stephanie Barr- That sounds pretty cool, to put poetry to song. But I guess that happens a lot with religious music at least. But not to famous poems that I've heard.
ReplyDelete