My Maggie

In a field of dreams
All alone in my reverie
Deep in a daydream
Dreaming of what would be
Dreaming of Maggie …
From across the high sea
Returning to me
On coming of age in far Calais

Then came the presage
An ominous message
They had betrothed Maggie
And there she would stay
They had stolen my Rose away

Without a forethought
Or my life was over
I mounted my grey mare
Onward I drove her
Overland, I struck South for Dover
No matter what lay in the way

For Maggie Rose I had to discover
She was the whole world to me
For life without her, nor could I doubt her
I knew that never could be
No, that never could be

Regardless of weather
Through bracken and heather
All the while I grew bolder
My mind growing bolder and bolder
For Maggie Rose, I swore to recover
For me there was no one other
Then looking on over 
Was this course for Dover
Or had I ridden astray?
No milestones showed me the way

(brief interlude)

Through fields of Bluebell and clover
My mind in turmoil, rolling over
In a fever, burning over and over
My poor mare plodding slower and slower
Onward, though slower and slower
That’s how it was, the Sun sinking lower
My thoughts growing darker all day
Darker each step of the way
My soul trapped the darkness to stay
Too dark even to pray

Then with the dawning
I found the next morning
At last, a sight of the bay
There I was, five miles from Dover
The hard ride almost over
My mare all a lather
I entered the streets of the town
Searching for mast heads 
Where the fast ‘Packets’ gather
And at last, put out to sea

To what Fate awaits me 
And where it would take me
Sailed on the ebb of the tide
Hoping the cruel sea
Would surely fling me
And roughly bring me all the way
To land by end of the day
Not knowing what awaits in Calais.
I knew not what lay in Calais.

(Instrumental outro)

Rodd Sherwin
to a composition by
Jeremy Williams