Looks like I've channeled another tune for a C. Fox Smith poem. This one entitled "Pacific Coast" looks back at the youthful days she spent working on the Victoria, BC, waterfront, as a typist. The tune composed by Peter Bellamy for Kipling's "Mandalay" is a remarkably good fit, and there is a minimum of words I feel need changing for singing, except to add a refrain from the last line of each verse.

Poem by C. Fox Smith, SEA SONGS & BALLADS 1917-22, pp. 96-97, © 1924
Adapted for singing by Charles Ipcar, 8/20/2004
Tune: Peter Bellamy's music for "Mandalay"

Pacific Coast


Half across the world to westward, there's a harbour that I know,
Where the ships that load with lumber and those China liners go;
Where the wind blows cold at sunset, off the snow-crowned peaks that gleam
Out across the Straits at twilight, like the landfall of a dream.

Refrain:

Like the landfall of a dream,
Like the landfall of a dream,
Out across the Straits at twilight,
Like the landfall of a dream.

There's a sound of foreign voices; there are wafts of strange perfume,
And a two-stringed fiddle playing, somewhere in an upstairs room;
There's a rosy tide lap-lapping, on an old worm-eaten quay,
And a scarlet sunset flaming down, beyond the China Sea.(REF)

And I daresay if I went there now I'd find it all the same,
Still the same old sunset glory, setting all the skies aflame,
Still the smell of burning forests, on the quiet evening air,
Little things my heart remembers, nowhere else on earth but there.(REF)

Still the harbour gulls a-calling, calling all the night and day,
And the wind across the water, singing just the same old way,
As it used to in the rigging, of a ship I used to know,
Half across the world from England, now so many years ago. (REF)

She is gone beyond my finding, gone forever, ship and man,
Far beyond that scarlet sunset, flaming down behind Japan;
But maybe I?ll find the dream there, that I lost so long ago,
Half across the world to westward, in a harbour that I know...(REF
Half across the world from England, now so many years ago.

Here's the original poem:

Poem by C. Fox Smith, SEA SONGS & BALLADS 1917-22, pp. 96-97, © 1924

Pacific Coast


Half across the world to westward there's a harbour that I know,
Where the ships that load with lumber and the China liners go, ?
Where the wind blows cold at sunset off the snow-crowned peaks that gleam
Out across the Straits at twilight like the landfall of a dream.

There's a sound of foreign voices, there are wafts of strange perfume,
And a two-stringed fiddle playing somewhere in an upstairs room;
There's a rosy tide lap-lapping on an old worm-eaten quay,
And a scarlet sunset flaming down behind the China Sea.

And I daresay if I went there I should find it all the same,
Still the same old sunset glory setting all the skies aflame,
Still the smell of burning forests on the quiet evening air,
Little things my heart remembers nowhere else on earth but there.

Still the harbour gulls a-calling, calling all the night and day,
And the wind across the water singing just the same old way
As it used to in the rigging of a ship I used to know
Half across the world from England, many and many a year ago.

She is gone beyond my finding, gone forever, ship and man,
Far beyond that scarlet sunset flaming down behind Japan;
But I'll maybe find the dream there that I lost so long ago,
Half across the world to westward in a harbour that I know,
Half across the world from England many and many a year ago.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble