STORY/ SCENARIO: Sick with the pressures of modern life, a man dreams about throwing off his cares and escaping to sea.
VARIATIONS: In RBY the opening four bars of melody play three times in succession; I have reduced this to two playings per verse (Lead me...shore).
Lead me away
From trial and tribulation:
Misery I
Can no longer endure!
Give me one day
Of joyous anticipation,
Waving goodbye
To our friends on the shore!
Can the sea,
The restless senses of my mind expanding,
Furnish me
With a profound new peace and understanding?
Raging foam,
Whose fury on the rocky shore disbanding,
Take me home,
And cleanse me of all anguish at our landing?
Oh to depart
This city of endless sorrow,
Weary and sore
As the bones of a slave!
Will my poor heart
Preserve me until tomorrow,
Pining once more
For the wash of a wave?
Only where
The frothing waters of the world are surging,
Can the air -
His forces with the wave and tide converging -
Make me whole,
With salty medicine all passion purging
From my soul,
And cure me of my labour's ceaseless urging!
Wide is men's woe,
And many their contradictions:
Journeying far
Still they long to be free!
When will they show
The courage of their convictions,
Bright as a star
Hanging over the sea?
In the beam -
The milky channel of the moon's reflection -
Do we seem
A race of children wanting firm direction?
Foolish boys,
Or do we hunger for a fresh injection
Of those joys
We knew so long ago as true perfection?