Lyrics

A Pretty Name
Whit Hill, 2012
whithill@gmail.com

It was a small house
weathered and rough-hewn
All we had inherited from my father
There was a box of thread
and some muslin by the fire
For my mother took in mending for the sailors

I was a strange girl,
different from the others
I never learned to sew nor cultivate my charms
When the moon was full,
I would dive into the water
Divide the waves and whitecaps with my arms

Now I have crossed the oceans, tempest-tossed, but resolute
And I have seen the sort of beauty others rarely do
But late night in my cabin
by the candle flame
Sometimes I remember...
I had a pretty name.

I cut my hair when I was 16,
bound my chest one night and ran away
The harbormaster never did suspect, he signed me up to sail the Lady Day
And Oh, the mad adventure,
the danger and the colors and the islands
I was tall and strong, and I could read the stars
After seven years aboard they made me captain.

CH

(BR) I took a wife when I was 40,
she loved the truth about me
She stayed with me for 5 and 20 years
But one night in a storm,
The Good Lord called her home
And I salted the Atlantic with my tears

IT is a small house
Weathered and rough-hewn
And my mirror shows an old and tired man
And the hearth is lined with trinkets and with treasures
They help me to remember who I am

Yes I have crossed the oceans, tempest-tossed but resolute
And I have known the deepest love that others rarely do
And late at night alone with my dying flame
sometimes I remember,
I had a pretty name
Yes, I drink to that brave girl...
Who had a pretty name.