the island: come and see/the landlord s daughter/you ll not feel

The Decemberists

I.

There's an island hidden in the sound
Lapping currents lay your boat to ground
Fix your barb and bayonets
The curve is carved there arabesque
And sorrow fills the silence all around
You come and see

There's a harbor lost within the reeds
A jetty caught in overhanging trees
Among the bones of cormorants
No bootmark here nor fingerprints
The rivers roll down to a salina sea
Come and see, come and see

The tides will come and go
With this below waking eye
The willows mark the wind
Now we know for sure amidst this fading light
We'll not go home again
Come and see, come and see

In the low ends nestled in the heath
A briar cradle rocks its babe to sleep
Contents watched by ziggurats
And patagon in parallax
A foretold rumbling sounds below the deep
Come and see, come and see

The tides will come and go
With this below waking eye
The willows mark the wind
Now we know for sure amidst this fading light
We'll not come home again
Come and see, come and see

II.

As I was a ramble
Down by the water
I spied in sable
The landlords daughter

Produced my pistol
Then my saber
To make no whistle
Or thou will be murdered
La ha, la ha

She cursed, she shivered
She cried for mercy
"My gold and silver
If thou will release me"
La ha, la ha

I'll take no gold, miss
I'll take no silver
I'll take those sweet lips
That thou will deliver
La ha, la ha

III.

I will dress your eyelids
With dimes upon your eyes
Lay you close to water
Green your grave will rise

Go to sleep now
Little ugly
Go to sleep now
You little fool

Forty winking
In the belfry
You'll not feel the drowning
You'll not feel the drowning

Forget you once had sweethearts
They've forgotten you
Think you not on parents
They've forgotten too

Go to sleep now
Little ugly
Go to sleep now
You little fool

Forty winking
In the belfry
You'll not feel the drowning
You'll not feel the drowning

Go to sleep now
Little ugly
Go to sleep now
You little fool

Forty winking
In the belfry
You'll not feel the drowning

Hear you now the captain
Heave his sorrowed cry
The weight upon your eyelids
Is dimes laid on your eyes