The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #166030 Message #3988832
Posted By: GUEST,gecko
24-Apr-19 - 12:03 AM
Thread Name: Origins: Song 'Sweet Portaferry'
Subject: Origins: Song 'Sweet Portaferry'
I'm hoping you'll be able to help with some info about this song. Perhaps the song I know as Sweet Portaferry is known by a different name but I've exhausted my usual lines of inquiry and drawn a blank. Can't find it in the DT Lyrics either.
First two lines go:
You may gaze from green mountains across the bright seas
Where wonder and pleasement are taking their ease..
After a break of many years I've recently started playing in a weekly Irish session here in Cairns and the tune to the song is played as part of an arrangement. Now, I immediately recognised the tune but could not bring either the lyrics or song title to mind - I'm claiming a Senior Moment. No-one in the session knew it as a song but I've now dug out my copy of the words from about thirty years ago and I had forgotten just how beautiful the words were. However, as I mentioned at the beginning of this message, there doesn't appear to be much online about it.
I'll try and post it here in it's entirety as I'm not familiar with 'blue clickies'
SWEET PORTAFERRY. (F#)
You may gaze from green mountains across the bright seas
Where wonder and pleasement are taking their ease
You may search the world over from there to Japan
Transported with nature and the glory of Man
But why should men tail foreign lands to explore
When wonder and pleasement are here at the door
And who would go roving through country and town
from sweet Portaferry and the kingdom of Down
It lies in a harbour convenient and free
Where the waters of Strangford run swirling to sea
To bear on their bosom the yield of our toil
When farmer and fisherman plough lake and soil
Their bright silver comes in our nets to the strand
Our gold and our glory are planted by hand
But who would give beauty for gain or renown
And leave Portaferry and the kingdom of Down
If I were a poor man I’d work on my land
Content with the beauty at every hand
But if I were a rich man my care to beguile
I’d fill up my pockets and wander awhile
And what though I’d wander on strange lands and seas
And think my land middling compared against these
I know when old age makes a sage of a clown
I’d seek Portaferry and the kingdom of Down.
Over to you, dear mudcatter friends.
YIU
gecko