Roll Back The Years

A candle burned bright on a dark winter's night
Through a window that looked out to sea
And as the dawn broke, a fair child was born
In a cottage at the edge of the quay

Harsh was the wind as the tide came on in
No boat could be seen on the sea
The fishing kept on all through the day
As they stood there on Mount Misery

Roll on the rippling waves
Roll on the blue
Roll the years back to a life we once knew

All battered and torn, the boats came to shore
As the twilight crept over the quay
One boat was lost and never came back
As the father she never would see

The years came and went, she quickly grew up
The fairest of fair maids was she
Her hair was as gold as the corn on the corn
And her eyes were as blue as the sea

Roll on the rippling waves
Roll on the blue
Roll the years back to a life we once knew

All the fishing lads courted, to all she said no
"A lonely old maid I shall be
For no man of mine shall share the same fate
As the father I never did see"

There came one at last who captured her heart
She followed her stern destiny
She cast in her lot like her mother before
And married a dead man from the sea

Roll on the rippling waves
Roll on the blue
Roll the years back to a life we once knew

On a dark winter's night when the storm's in the air
Come stand by the quay once again
The sound of her sigh comes back on the wind
And the sting of those tears in the rain

Roll on the rippling waves
Roll on the blue
Roll on the rippling waves
Roll on the blue
Roll the years back to a life we once knew