Back To Hilo by Cicely Fox Smith at Old Poetry

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There's a dark an' dirty wineshop on a waterfront I know,
An' a cross-eyed Dago keeps it — or he kep' it years ago —
Where the sailormen an' greasers sit them down to dice and dine —
An' I wish I was back again in Hilo —
In Hilo —
Drinkin' old Jacinto's wine!

There's the blessed Andes standin' up behind it like a wall,
An' there's dust, an' stinks, an' insecks, an' there ain't much else at all,
An' them sulky Dago wenches, they was never much my line —
But I wish I was back again in Hilo —
In Hilo —
Drinkin' old Jacinto's wine.

For my mind it keeps on turnin' — an' I ask you, ain't it queer,
When the stuff we used to get there warn't a bloomin' patch on beer? —
To that dirty Dago's wineshop an' them old-time pals o' mine —
An' I wish I was back again in Hilo —
In Hilo —
Drinkin' old Jacinto's wine.

Notes

From ROVINGS: Sea Songs & Ballads, edited by Cicely Fox Smith, published by Elkin Mathews, London, UK, © 1921, p. 45.

A favourite topic for yarns and focsle ballads would be the taverns that sailors had visited in the sailortowns around the world.

The "Hilo" referred to is likely the port of "Ilo" in southern Peru, not the Port of Hilo in the Hawaiian Islands.

The header graphic is drawn by shanty singer and sea songs collector Stan Hugill from his book SAILORTOWN, published by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, London, © 1967, p. 234.

Jim Saville and Charley Noble