BUT where's the brown drifter that went out alone ? <br />-Roll and go, and fare you well- <br />' Was her name <br />Peggy Nutten? <br />' That name is my own. <br />Fare you well, my sailor. <br />They sang in the dark, ' Let her go ! Let her go ! ' <br />And she sailed to the West, where the broad waters flow; <br />And the others come back, but . . . the bitter winds blow. <br />Ah, fare you well, my sailor. <br /> <br />The women, at evening, they wave and they cheer. <br />-Roll and go, and fare you well- <br />They're waiting to welcome their lads at the pier. <br />Fare you well, my sailor. <br />They're all coming home in the twilight below; <br />But there's one little boat. . . . Let her go ! Let her go! <br />She carried my heart, and a heart for the foe. <br />Ah, fare you well, my sailor. <br /> <br />The <br />Nell <br />and the <br />Maggie <br />, the <br />Ruth <br />and the Joan, <br /> <br />-'-Roll and go, and fare you well- <br />They come to their name-sakes, and leave me alone. <br />Fare you well, my sailor. <br />And names are kep' dark, for the spies mustn't know; <br />But they'll look in my face, an' I think it will show; <br />Peggy Nutten's my name. Let her go ! Let her go! <br />Ah, fare you well, my sailor.<br /><br />Alfred Noyes<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/name-sakes/
