The High Arctic

Our ships are locked high in the Arctic
Our ships are locked high in the ice
Our ships are locked high in the Arctic
Now let me give you some advice

Don't sail the High Arctic for pleasure my lads
Don't come where the polar bear play
Don't sail the High Arctic for pleasure my lads
You'll wish you had all stayed away
Ye freeze to death earning your pay

Tall towers of ice in the Arctic
sweep spirally south in the flow
Tall towers of ice in the Arctic
and silent ice-death down below
ch
We worked through the ice on long warp-lines
We sawed through the ice-tongues to pass
We worked through the ice on long warp-lines
and ached for the southern green grass
ch
The snow blinds our eyes in its brightness
and wind-freeze takes all warmth away
The snow blinds our eyes in its brightness
There's no hope of pulling away
ch
With tack running low in the galley
the hunting men haven't returned
With tack running low in the galley
it seems all our boats have been burned
ch
I'll think of my Maudie forever
And how will my little ones be
I'll think of my Maudie forever
I wonder if she'll think of me
ch
The ships are two coffins half-buried
Dead sailors are froze to the decks
The ships are two coffins half-buried
Two High Arctic frozen ship wrecks
ch
You'll find us one year in these ice-tombs
one year when a sharp thaw sets in
You'll find us one year in these ice-tombs
The frozen ship wreck and its kin
(ch + last line of chorus is sung three timesthe last time ending on a long drawn out fr-ee-ee-ee-ee-ee-eeze)

1999 © Charlotte Peters Rock

Main site
Poetry site
Song site
Child Poems site