Row On

The lyrics to this song were written by G.P.R. James, Esq. and appear as a poem in his 1844 novel Arabella Stuart. The poem was copied  verbatim into a whaler's log on the ship Three Brothers as it set off from Nantucket on a 5-year whaling trip in 1846.  Gale Huntington of Martha's Vineyard found the poem in the sailor's log and reprinted it in his 1964 collection, Songs the Whalemen Sang.

The poem may have been inspired in part by the experience of the survivors of a whale attack that destroyed the whaling ship Essex in 1820 - who rowed for thousands of miles on the open Pacific. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essex_(whaleship)

The poem was set to music in this century by the Dorset folksinger Tim Laycock.

Clouds are upon the summer sky
There's thunder in the wind
Pull on, pull on and homeward hie
Nor give one look behind
     Row on, row on, another day
     May shine with brighter light
     Ply, ply the oars and pull away
     There's dawn beyond the night

Bear where thou goest the words of love
Say all that words can say
Changeless affection, strength to prove
But speed upon the way

Like yonder river would I glide
To where my heart would be
My barque should soon outsail the tide
That hurries to the sea

But yet a star shines constant still
Through yonder cloudy sky
And hope as bright my bosom fills
From faith that cannot die

Row on, row on, God speed the way
Thou canst not linger here
Storms hang about the closing day
Tomorrow may be clear

Clouds are upon the summer sky
There's thunder in the wind
Pull on, pull on and homeward hie
Nor give one look behind.