The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #2301   Message #3978637
Posted By: GUEST,Jim P
23-Feb-19 - 08:09 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Grace Darling (from Walter Pardon)
Subject: Lyr Add: GRACE DARLING (Felix McGlennon)
Allright, I've got the sheet music in front of me. Its undated, and states that the words and music are by Felix McGlennon, whom Wikipedia tells me "was a British songwriter and publisher, whose seriocomic songs were popular in the music halls of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries." He died in 1943, aged 87 years. Copyright "F.Pitman Hart & Co. LTD, 20 & 21 Paternoster Row, London, E.C." The verses are in 2/4 time and the chorus is 3/4. Lyrics are as follows; I've tried to keep the spelling and punctuation as in the original:

GRACE DARLING
(Felix McGlennon)

'Twas on the Longstone Lighthouse,
There dwelt an English maid;
Pure as the air around her,
Of danger ne'er afraid.
One morning, just at day-break,
A stom-toss'd wreck she spied;
And tho' to try seem'd madness;
"I'll save the crew," she cried.

CHORUS
And she pulled away o'er the rolling sea,
Over the waters blue,
Help! Help! she could hear the cry of the shipwreck'd crew;
But Grace had an English heart,
And the raging storm she brav'd,
She pull'd away, mid the dashing spray,
And the crew she sav'd.

They to the rock were clinging,
A crew of nine all told;
Between them and the light-house,
The sea like mountains rolled.
Said Grace, "Come, help me father,
We'll launch the boat," said she;
Her father cried, "'tis madness
To face that raging sea."

CHORUS

One murmur'd pray'r - Heav'n guard us!
And then they were afloat;
Between them and destruction,
The planks of that frail boat.
Then spoke the maiden's father,
"Return or doom'd are we,"
But up spake brave Grace Darling
"Alone I'll brave the sea."

CHORUS

They bravely rode the billows,
And reach'd the rock at length,
They saved the storm-tost sailors,
In Heav'n alone their strength.
Go tell the wide world over,
What English pluck can do,
And sing of brave Grace Darling
Who nobly saved the crew.

CHORUS