Jeffrey Hull

Moon over America © 2008 Rick Lee

My ship is taking water
   As I hurry out to sea
To flirt with Neptune's daughter
   Or his daughter flirt with me

While bright eyed dancing sailors
   On their pennywhistles play
Of sailing ships and whalers
   At the dark'ning of the day.

It's a jolly bit of boating
   If the sailors sing in tune,
And keep this vessel floating
   'Til the rising of the moon.


      The rising of the moon, my boys,
      The rising of the moon—
      We'll keep this vessel floating
      'Til the rising of the moon.

I've charted no returning
   And this port I'll hail no more,
I seek the fires burning
   On some distant fragrant shore.

And as I track the ocean
   Shine the stars that midnight pave
Above the soft commotion
   Of the phosphorescent wave.

With sails and shrouds a-singing
   I look forward to commune
With friends whose souls are winging
   At the rising of the Moon.


      The rising of the moon, my boys,
      The rising of the moon—
      With friends whose souls are winging
      At the rising of the moon.

And when that moon has risen
   We will raise our glasses high,
Our bodies no more prison
   And our souls released to fly

Where meadows dance with flowers
   Where sweet honey fills the comb
Where nectar rains in showers
   Where our joyous spirits roam.

Let all our pain and sorrow
   On those golden sands be strewn
And washed away tomorrow
   With the rising of the moon.

      The rising of the moon, my friends,
      The rising of the moon—
      And washed away tomorrow
      With the rising of the moon.




©2008 Jeffrey Hull


NOTE: This may also be (and probably ought to be) sung to the tune of an Irish rebellion song, By the Rising of the Moon, words by John Keegan Casey. The melody for Rising was also was used for a more recent insurrectionist song, The Wearing of the Green. The original melody was written by the famous itinerant harper Turlough O'Carolan.