If I might leave this harbour, if I might cross the sea,
'Tis I that know full well where a little while I'd be —
Sittin' in the window-nook a-lookin' to the quay,
At the Ring o' Bells,
The pleasant Ring o' Bells,
All among the old faces, an' the tar an' seaweed smells.
In the hot reekin' city, it's there my heart longs
To be far from strange harbours an' drunken dusky throngs, —
To be hearin' old voices a-singin' old songs
At the Ring o' Bells,
The pleasant Ring o' Bells,
Ah it's there I once was merry, and it's there my heart dwells.
Just the catch of a tune in a gaudy, glaring bar,
And back leagues on leagues my heart goes leapin' far,
Where the gay garden posies an' the English lasses are,
At the Ring o' Bells,
The pleasant Ring o' Bells,
All among the old faces, an' the tar an' seaweed smells.
Notes
From WINGS OF THE MORNING, edited by Cicely Fox Smith, published by Elkin Mathews, London, UK, © 1904, pp. 80-81.
This poem might best be characterized as another precursor of the experience she will soon have in her 9 year stay in the harbour of Victoria, British Columbia, and the volumes of poems that she will then compose. When she composed this poem she was probably still "in the hot reekin' city" of Manchester, England, preparing for her voyage to the Westward.
"Ring o' Bells" may be a reference to a typical sea-side inn and/or the ringing of the watch bells aboard ships in the harbour.
Charley Noble
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Ring of Bells was (and still is) a common British pub name. Usually for a public house sited near a Church. Campanology is very thirsty work. LOL
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