Origins: Homeward Bound (from Gordon Bok)

Subject: Lyr Add: HOMEWARD BOUND (D. H. Rogers/J Broomhall)
From: JWB
Date: 27 May 04 - 11:16 PM

A fair amount of searching both the DT, Forum and other web sources has turned up nothing on this fine poem that's been made into a song. I've only seen it on Gordon Bok and Cindy Kallet's CD "Neighbors". In the notes Gordon says he received it as a royalty payment from an Australian, and that the lyrics are a poem by D.H. Rogers, with a tune created by John Broomhall.

I'm very interested in learning about the author, composer and history of the piece.

Here's the Bok version:

They will take us from the moorings, they will tow us down the bay,
They will pluck us up to windward when we sail.
We shall hear the keen wind whistle, we shall feel the sting of spray
When we've seen the deep sea pilot o'er the rail.
Then it's "Johnny, heave and start 'er!" and it's "Johnny, roll and go!"
When the mates have picked the watches there is little rest for Jack.
But we'll raise the good old chantey that the homeward bounders know,
For the girls have got the tow rope and they're hauling in the slack.

In the dusty streets and dismal, through the noises of the town
We can hear the west wind humming through the shrouds.
We can see the lightning leaping as the tropic suns go down,
And the dapple of the shadows of the clouds.
And the salt blood dances in us to the tune of Homeward Bound,
To the call to weary watches, to the sheet and to the tack.
When they bid us man the capstan how the hands will walk her 'round
For the girls have got the tow rope and they're hauling in the slack.

Through the sunshine of the tropics, 'round the bleak and dreary Horn
Half across this windy planet lies our way.
We will leave the land behind us like a welcome that's outworn
When we see the reeling mastheads swing and sway.
Through the weather fair and stormy, in the calm and in the gale,
We will heave and haul to help her, we will keep her on her track.
And we'll hear the chorus rolling as the hands are making sail,
For the girls have got the tow rope and they're hauling in the slack.

Thanks,

Jerry

Subject: RE: Origins: Homeward Bound poem/song recorded by Bok
From: nutty
Date: 28 May 04 - 07:14 AM

I have the poem in "A Book of Australasian Verse" chosen by Walter Murdoch and first published in 1918 .... however it was revised in 1945 and some poems were added. Unfortunately it doesn't say which ones.
The Bartleby site have the same collection ...
CLICK HERE

Subject: RE: Origins: Homeward Bound poem/song recorded by Bok
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 May 04 - 07:35 AM

I like the way that it fits just as well whichever way the boat is heading - England or Australia.

Subject: RE: Origins: Homeward Bound poem/song recorded by Bok
From: nutty
Date: 28 May 04 - 09:07 AM

Just checked the Barteby site again and from the forword it's obvious that they are using the 1918 version of the book.

Subject: Lyr Add: HOMEWARD BOUND (from Gordon Bok)
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 09 Jan 13 - 10:37 AM

The oldest copy of the poem I can find with Google Books is in New Zealand Verse edited by W. F. Alexander & A. E. Currie (London: Walter Scott Publishing Co., Ltd., 1906), page 89. I haven't done a word-for-word comparison, but it looks like it matches the lyrics posted above.

However, what Gordon Bok actually sings is slightly different:


HOMEWARD BOUND
As sung by Gordon Bok on the Gordon Bok/Cindy Kallet album "Neighbors" (1996)

They will take us from the moorings, they will tow us down the bay,
They will pluck us up to wind'ard when we sail.
We will hear the keen wind whistle, we will feel the sting of spray
When we've seen the deep sea pilot o'er the rail.
Then it's "Johnny, heave and start 'er!" and it's "Johnny, roll and go!"
When the mates have picked the watches there is little rest for Jack.
And we'll sing the good old chorus that the homeward bounders know,
For the girls have got the tow rope and they're hauling in the slack.

Through the dusty streets and dismal, through the noises of the town
We can hear the west wind humming through the shrouds.
And we'll see the lightning leaping as the tropic suns go down,
And the dapple of the shadows of the clouds.
And the salt blood dances in us to the tune of Homeward Bound,
To the call to weary watches, to the sheet and to the tack.
When they bid us man the capstan all hands will walk her 'round
For the girls have got the tow rope and they're hauling in the slack.

Through the sunshine of the tropics, 'round the bleak and dreary Horn
Half across this windy planet lies our way.
And we'll leave the land behind us like a welcome long outworn
When we see the reeling mastheads swing and sway.
Through the weather fair and stormy, through the calm and in the gale,
We will heave and haul to help her, we will keep her on her track.
And we'll sing the good old chantey as all hands are making sail,
For the girls have got the tow rope and they're hauling in the slack.

Subject: RE: Origins: Homeward Bound (from Gordon Bok)
From: GUEST,kendall
Date: 09 Jan 13 - 10:54 AM

He does a beautiful rendition of this one.

Subject: RE: Origins: Homeward Bound (from Gordon Bok)
From: JWB
Date: 20 Jan 13 - 11:51 AM

Thanks, Jim, for the comparison. Gordon told me that the version he was given had the line "When we've dropped the deep-sea pilot o'er the rail", which he thought was pretty rough treatment for a poor pilot, so when he recorded it he changed the words to "...seen the deep-sea pilot..."

Subject: RE: Origins: Homeward Bound (from Gordon Bok)
From: GUEST,John Archer
Date: 01 May 21 - 08:49 AM

David Hunter Rogers was born in Edinburgh in 1865. He came to Dunedin in 1870 when his parents migrated from Scotland by a memorable voyage on a windjammer, and from the ages of 15 to 35 he gained considerable experience in the mercantile marine, but working on shore, as an accountant for the Union Steam Ship Company!

As a young man he would have undoubtedly been been told many stories by the old windjammer sailors, and these influenced him greatly in later life. He joined a shipping company because he loved the speedy windjammers, but as a shipping company's accountant it broke his heart to sit at board meetings and show why they should no longer be used.

In 1894 he married Eliza Jane Nimmo, a school teacher aged 29, and they had 2 children. Later he was an accountant/secretary for various Otago companies, and as the aches and pains of an ageing body in a cold, damp came to him, the verses he published under the pseudonym of Taiwa ('potato' dialect Maori) show a romantic yen for the life of those windjammer sailors:- of high adventure in tropic climes, and a sudden painless death in the prime of life.

He became ill at the age of 60, resigned his secretaryships of the St John's Ambulance, Navy League, DIC, etc, made a visit to London with his wife and daughter, and in 1933 he died at his hilltop home 12 Pacific St, Dunedin, aged 68. His wife died in 1946.

Neil Colquhoun's arrangement of his "John Smith AB" is best known in NZ folk circles.
John Smith A. B.

Subject: RE: Origins: Homeward Bound (from Gordon Bok)
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 01 May 21 - 05:03 PM

Perhaps of interest to conjecture what Rogers meant by the song 'Homeward Bound' as there are several candidates. One of the better known is Upton's 'Outward and Homeward Bound' which turns up in some forms in chanties. The obvious one would be the chanty 'Goodbye, Fare-ye-well'.

Subject: RE: Origins: Homeward Bound (from Gordon Bok)
From: Charley Noble
Date: 03 May 21 - 08:51 AM

John Archer,

Thanks for your notes on who composed this poem. It does make another excellent farewell chantey. I'll have to give the Bok version a listen and find out what tune he's put together.

Cheerily,
Charlie Ipcar