Rosario

Early in the morning as the moon was in the sky,
Early in the morning I kissed my girl goodbye,
For kissing-time is over and it's time and time to go
When you've a long road to travel to Rosario!

Oh wake her &mdash oh shake her! — and the Peter's flying free,
And the pilot's come aboard her, and she's hungry for the sea.
Kissing time is over; And it's time and time to go
And "a long road to travel to Rosario!"

Summer'll soon be over, the leaves'll fade and die,
And white on every furrow the winter snows'll lie,
But we're bound for the long furrows where never lies the snow,
And we've a long road to travel to Rosario!

Oh wake her — oh shake her! — and the cable surges in
To the roar of a shanty chorus as we make the handspikes spin . . .
Oh she's bound for the long furrows where never lies the snow  —
And "a long road to travel to Rosario!"

And now she smells the deep sea, and now she's gathering way,
And now she meets the rollers in a white smother of spray —
Sou'west an' a half west, and steady as we go . . .
And "a long road to travel to Rosario!"

Oh, wake her — oh, shake her! — and it's good-bye to the shore,
With the north wind in her topsails, and the whole wide world before . . . 
Sou'west an' a half west, and steady as you go —
And a long road to travel to Rosario!"

Notes

From SHIPS AND FOLKS, edited by Cicely Fox Smith, published by Elkin Mathews, London, UK, © 1920, pp. 50-51.

There are similarities between this poem and "The Long Road Home," especially so in the third verse.

A version of this poem was sent by the poet to sea music collector Joanna Colcord.

The header graphic is of the loading wharf at Rosario, Argentina, on the Parana River as photographed by Capt. Lincoln Colcord (Joanna Colcord's father) in 1894: "The cargo, often bales of wool or hides, was slid down these long chutes to be loaded into the ship's hold." from LETTERS FROM SEA, edited by Parker Bishop Albee, Jr., p. 30.

Charley Noble

Comments

• By me, right now

  Adding your comment:
• 
  Charley Noble
  October 3, 2005
  Edit | Reply
  Rosario is a small port in Argentina up the Rio de la Plata.
  
  Stan Hugill in his book SAILORTOWN, p. 244, describes the difficult passage up the river to Rosario:
  
  Rosario de Santa Fe – the "Rosary of Holy Faith" – lies a long way up the Rio Plata and Parana. Nevertheless, in the seventies and eighties, and even later, windbags made the long tedious trip up the river to load grain or Quebracho-wood. They usually anchored every night, and would take from six to thirty days to do the passage. It must be remembered that in those days there were no tugs to be had.
  
  The line "Oh, wake her – oh, shake her!" is borrowed from the traditional shanty "Johnny Come Down to Hilo."
  
  Cheerily,
  Charley Noble
  

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