Lyr Req: Harp Song of the Dane Women (R Kipling)

Subject: What is a woman that you forsake her
From:
Date: 30 Nov 99 - 02:27 AM

I'm looking for a complete lyric and source for the following fragment:

What is a woman that you forsaker her And the hearth fire and the homemaker To go with the old grey widow-maker

She has no arms for you to rest in But one cold bed for all to rest in ...??...

...or something like that. It might be titled "Lament of the Fisherman's Wife" or some such

Please reply via email to [e-mail]

Many thanks!

Corrie

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What is a woman that you forsake her
From: Pete M
Date: 30 Nov 99 - 05:06 AM

You are referring to "The Harp song of the Dane Women" by Rudyard Kipling. Sorry don't have time to copy it out at the moment, I'll get back to you tomorrow if no one beats me to it.

Pete M

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What is a woman that you forsake her
From: KathWestra
Date: 30 Nov 99 - 10:46 AM

Gordon Bok has recorded it -- wonderfully. He wrote the tune he sings to the words of the Kipling poem. Can't remember on which Folk-Legacy CD it appears. Check their website or send Sandy Paton a personal e-mail to ask.

Subject: Lyr Add: HARP SONG OF THE DANE WOMEN (R Kipling)
From: Widomaker song
Date: 30 Nov 99 - 02:31 PM

HARP SONG OF THE DANE WOMEN
From "Knights of the Joyous Venture" in "Puck of Pook's Hill"
by Rudyard Kipling, 1906

What is a woman that you forsake her,
And the hearth-fire and the home-acre,
To go with the old grey Widow-maker?

She has no house to lay a guest in—
But one chill bed for all to rest in,
That the pale suns and the stray bergs nest in.

She has no strong white arms to fold you,
But the ten-times-fingering weed to hold you
Bound on the rocks where the tide has rolled you.

Yet, when the signs of summer thicken,
And the ice breaks, and the birch-buds quicken,
Yearly you turn from our side, and sicken—

Sicken again for the shouts and the slaughters,
You steal away to the lapping waters,
And look at your ship in her winter quarters.

You forget our mirth, and talk at the tables,
The kine in the shed and the horse in the stables—
To pitch her sides and go over her cables!

Then you drive out where the storm-clouds swallow:
And the sound of your oar-blades falling hollow,
Is all we have left through the months to follow!

Ah, what is Woman that you forsake her,
And the hearth-fire and the home-acre,
To go with the old grey Widow-maker?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What is a woman that you forsake her
From: lamarca
Date: 30 Nov 99 - 05:14 PM

Both Gordon Bok and the late Peter Bellamy have both set this Kipling poem to music, to tunes that are similar (but different). Gordon's is on, I think, Schooners; Peter's version is available on a tape re-release called Puck's Songs. Gordon's CD is available from Sandy at Folk Legacy, and Peter's tape was being sold by Heather Wood here in the USA; don't know if she has any left.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: What is a woman that you forsake her
From: Corrie
Date: 03 Dec 99 - 01:31 PM

Thanks, all!!!