G'day again Brad(fordian),

It is the astonishing number of changes in this poem/song that intrigues me - and confounds the assertion that "folk song" (or, maybe, the 'folk process') is dead - because now we write down a song ... and it doesn't change! Of course, a lot of changes arise from taking a lyric with specific Australian/southern hemisphere references back to Britain ... and then (with a measure of deliberate alteration for whatever purpose) off beyond the pale (the pale was a defensive/containment ring the Brits tried to keep around the Irish!)

You are, of course, correct in giving the original name (Dorothy Hewett's poem and the song settings by Bill Berry and Chris Kempster) as The Sailor home from the Sea. What I should have said above was that the 'proper' first line is:

"O! Cock of the morning, with a dream in his hand ...".

Anyway, I watch the process with interest.

Regards,

Bob Bolton