My father was the keeper of the Eddystone Light
And he slept with a mermaid one fine night.
Of this union there came three:
A porpoise and a porgy and the other was me.
. . Yo-ho-ho, the wind blows free,
. . Oh, for the life on the rolling sea.
One night when I was a-trimmin' of the glim,
A-singin' a verse of the Evenin' Hymn,
A voice from the starboard shouted "Ahoy"
And there was me mother, a-sittin' on a buoy.
. . Yo-ho-ho, the wind blows free,
. . Oh, for the life on the rolling sea.
"What has become of my children three?"
My mother then she asked of me.
"One was exhibited as a talking fish
And the other was served on a chafing dish."
. . Yo-ho-ho, the wind blows free,
. . Oh, for the life on the rolling sea.
Well, the phosphorus flashed in her seaweed hair;
I looked again and me mother wasn't there.
A voice came echoing out of the night:
"To Hell with the keeper of the Eddystone Light!"
. . Yo-ho-ho, the wind blows free,
. . Oh, for the life on the rolling sea.
-- old folk song; performed and recorded by Burl Ives and others
