Lyr Req: 'Far o'er the restless sea we roam....'

Subject: Lyr Req: Unknown sea lyrics
From: GUEST,Fred James
Date: 03 Oct 06 - 04:13 PM

I would like to find the origin of the following lines, which sound as if they came from a song of the sea: "Far o'er the restless sea we roam, we long ago became as slaves, with ne'er a thought of going home".
Anyone know that one?
Thanks.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Unknown sea lyrics
From: Joe Offer
Date: 03 Oct 06 - 05:06 PM

I googled and checked Mudcat for "restless sea we roam" and "long ago became as slaves," and no cigar. "Restless sea" was too common a term to search.
But basically, this is to refresh the thread...

Subject: RE: Req: Unknown sea lyrics-Far o'er the restless sea
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 03 Oct 06 - 05:20 PM

Sounds like something from a poem by Australian Poet called Henry kendall, but I don't have his book anymore, sorry.

Subject: RE: Req: Unknown sea lyrics-Far o'er the restless sea
From: Snuffy
Date: 03 Oct 06 - 06:37 PM

Is this the one, Dave? The Poems of Henry Kendall at Project Gutenberg

Subject: RE: Req: Unknown sea lyrics-Far o'er the restless sea
From: Peace
Date: 03 Oct 06 - 07:25 PM

He wrote three books of verse:

Poems and Songs (1862)
Leaves from Australian Forests (1869)
Songs from the Mountains (1880)

Subject: RE: Req: Unknown sea lyrics-Far o'er the restless sea
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 09:35 AM

G'day Dave(tam),

I downloaded the Project Gutenberg "Poems of Henry Kendall" file and searched (just using "restless" in a simple search) and did not find the phrase quoted.

I also looked through my Selected Poems of Henry Kendall, Angus & Robertson, Sydney, 1957 - and did not see any titles that suggested the type of poem from which such a quote might come.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Req: Unknown sea lyrics-Far o'er the restless sea
From: Peace
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 09:53 AM

I did the same as Bob, basically. No luck either. I doubt both of us would have missed it. If HK IS the writer, it's something that wasn't included in the works on the Project Gutenberg site. Do you have ANY other words? Any other info at all?

Subject: RE: Req: Unknown sea lyrics-Far o'er the restless sea
From: Snuffy
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 10:17 AM

I can't find "restless sea" in Adam Lindsay Gordon or Charles Harpur poems either

Subject: RE: Req: Unknown sea lyrics-Far o'er the restless sea
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 12:49 PM

Not in Christopher Stone, "Sea Songs and Ballads," Oxford.

Subject: RE: Req: Unknown sea lyrics-Far o'er the restless sea
From: Dave (the ancient mariner)
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 03:15 PM

Thanks for looking guys, I never thought they would all be online in pdf format. I guess I was wrong about the phrase. (Old age getting the better of me)

Subject: RE: Req: Unknown sea lyrics-Far o'er the restless sea
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 04 Oct 06 - 09:22 PM

G'day again,

GUEST,Fred James: I can see how the words you quoted would have suggested to Dave (the ancient mariner) that the text might be about the convict / exile experience - so it might well come from the early settlement of Australia ... or the earlier (pre-revolution) period of British occupation of America (... or Canada ...).

It might, just as well, refer to free migration and an inevitable period of hard work in establishing a new life ... somewhere else.

Do you have any more memories of lines from the same work? I think we need a few more clues before we find this one!

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: Req: Unknown sea lyrics-Far o'er the restless sea
From: Peace
Date: 05 Oct 06 - 11:45 AM

Where is Guest, Fred James? We need more info. Please.

Subject: RE: Req: Unknown sea lyrics-Far o'er the restless sea
From: GUEST,Fred James
Date: 06 Oct 06 - 10:43 AM

I appreciate all the effort put forth on this. I'm afraid I don't have any additional words from the quote. This quote is contained in a transcription of a 1945 half-hour radio program that tells the story of an old man forced to leave his home in the west. The story features a quotation from John Home's play, "Douglas" which uses the old ballad "Norval on the Grampian Hills" as its inspiration. I suspect that the unknown author of the script may have had a book of verse at hand to select the unknown quote, which he uses to contrast the old man's longing for his precious hills with that of a roaming seaman who has no home. Possibly the ballad and the unknown verse are in the same book.

Subject: RE: Req: Unknown sea lyrics-Far o'er the restless sea
From: Peace
Date: 06 Oct 06 - 07:29 PM

Thank you very much, Fred. That then provides a place to start--and many places not to start. Most appreciated.

Subject: RE: Req: Unknown sea lyrics-Far o'er the restless sea
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 10 Oct 06 - 11:25 PM

When I used Google Book Search with the phrase "Far o'er the restless sea," it found this:

Australian Idylls and Bush Rhymes
by Ernest G. Henty, E. A. Henty Starkey - 1896 - 79 pages
Page 28
No preview available

Unfortunately, using other phrases from the quote supplied did not produce encouraging results.