To my excellent friend John Berry Esq., Mount Vernon, N.Y.
"The Fishing Boats, or, Golden Haired  Alice" (1878)
Sung by Miss Madelane Phillips
Words and Music by Henry Tucker

1.
The winds gently sighing, one starlighted night,
Waft the Fishing Boats out from the bay.
And golden hair'd Alice with eyes beaming bright,
Waits and watches them sailing away.
And she murmurs these words as they fade from her sight,
"O bounteous, beautiful seas,
Send the spoil to their nets,
A fair breeze to their sails,
And my true love tomorrow to me."
And she murmurs these words as they fade from her sight,
"O bounteous, beautiful seas,
Send the spoil to their nets,
A fair breeze to their sails,
And my true love tomorrow to me."

2.
The morning broke darkly, the shingle was wet
With the frothery far driven foam.
And Alice with lips white as snow with affright
Passes speeding awasy from her home.
And they heard her sad voice in the grey morning light,
"O powerful, ravenous sea,
Keep the spoil in thy depths,
Hold the breeze on thy brest,
But return my lost lover to me."
And they heard her sad voice in the grey morning light,
"O powerful, ravenous sea,
Keep the spoil in thy depths,
Hold the breeze on thy brest,
But return my lost lover to me."

3.
She lost him forever, and when the cold sheen
Of the star shine it in mines the waves,
The form of fair Alice may often be seen
On the sands, near the tempest-arch'd caves.
And she sings her weird song in the morning air keen,
"O merciless, death-dealing sea,
That steals from our best,
Take me into his rest
Or restore my lost lover to me."
And she sings her weird song in the morning air keen,
"O merciless, death-dealing sea,
That steals from our best,
Take me into his rest
Or restore my lost lover to me."