The Eddystone Light

Burl Ives - The Eddystone light



My father was the keeper of the Eddystone Light

And he slept with a mermaid one fine night.

From this union there came three,

A porpoise and a porgy and the other was me.



Chorus: Yo, ho, ho, the wind blows free: oh, for a life on the rolling sea.



One night while I was a-trimmin' of the glim

A-singin' a verse from the evening hymn,

A voice from the starboard shouted, "Ahoy!"

And there was my mother a-sittin' on a buoy.



"Oh, what has become of my children three?"

My mother then she asked of me

"One was exhibited as a talking fish

And the other was served in a chafing dish."



Then the phosphorus flashed in her seaweed hair;

I looked again, and my mother wasn't there.

A voice come a-echoing out through the night:

"To Hell with the keeper of the Eddystone Light!"