Great Big Sea - England Lyrics
We shipped on board the Maryanne
To find a better life
And we walked across the water
When she broke up on the ice
We came ashore in Carbonear
And I wondered if I e'er again
Would see my London lights
We were far from the shores of England
Far from our children and wives
To play our hand in the Newfoundland
Where the wind cuts like a knife
We were far from the shores of England
Far from our native soil
To chase a wish and hunt the Fish
We were far from the shores of England
We spend our days amid the waves
Working water, hook and twine
We would go for weeks with blistered cheeks
Waiting for the sun to shine
But as long as the sky hold over us
We will not taste the brine
And we'll curse the cod
With the fear of God
As we haul in every line
Should we find Fortune's Favour
And be spared from the gale
We will live off honest labour
With our hearts as big as sails
But if I should die don't bury me
Or leave me to the sea
Please send my bones back to my home
Where my spirit can be free
Other Lyrics by Artist
- Great Big Sea - Barque In The Harbour
- Great Big Sea - Old Polina
- Great Big Sea - The River Driver
- Great Big Sea - The Mermaid
- Great Big Sea - Captain Kidd
- Great Big Sea - Graceful & Charming (Sweet Forget-Me-Not)
- Great Big Sea - Concerning Charlie Horse
- Great Big Sea - Harbour LeCou
- Great Big Sea - Tishialuk Girls Set
- Great Big Sea - French Shore
- Great Big Sea - Cod Liver Oil
- Great Big Sea - Tickle Cove Pond
- Great Big Sea - Love Me Tonight
- Great Big Sea - Walk On The Moon
- Great Big Sea - Come And I Will Sing You (The Twelve Apostles)
- Great Big Sea - Love
- Great Big Sea - Own True Way
- Great Big Sea - Fortune
Rand Lyrics
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Great Big Sea England Comments
I love this song... My dad is from Newfoundland and my mom is from England!:)
I LOVE this song!
Just leave out the part the British killed all the natives LoL
The disease we took there is to blame for that, 95% of Native American population killed by them within 100 years of us getting there, they did allegedly give us syphills though thanks for that
Sad song
It time for peace
goosebumps
Irish province that welcomes the English as well. That's what we're all about
This song makes me so sad. Imagine being so far from home and longing for England.
I couldn't imagine leaving Canada. Even for something like a vacation, I don't think I'd ever leave the country.
Filipino here, now I'm not from the Newfoundland nor am I British. But I find the spirit of this song is quite universal. People journeying to new lands, risking everything in search of a better life as well as to provide for their families at home. This song hits close to home for me, as a son of a Seaman. My father has to work most of the year on the tides and only coming to shore for a short period. Thank you for everything dad. It's your sacrifices why we live a good life . I'll make it up to you, one day.
Good man!
“Go where we may, rest where we will,
Eternal London haunts us still.” ― Thomas Moore
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.
.
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Will
I almost cried this song always makes me sad but it's also a great song. Big fan of Hetalia.
Canadian living in UK here. Canada to England will always be special.
Saw these in 2002 when i was based at GOOSE BAY. NEWFOUNDLAND
love the song reminds me how proud I m to be a newfie even when I live in toronto
I'm just some Korean dude living in the US, and I'm loving this song. I found it purely by accident. XD
HyperDavidovich being a Newfie boy living in Montreal, I feels ya by its truly hard being away from home.
Lyrical correction: its "in the new found land", not "In Newfoundland"
Which, of course, explains the use of the definite article "the".
As Abraham Lincoln famously commented in 1859: "The problem with statements on the Internet is that you can't confirm their validity."
I know the band too...I have seen them on TV.
No I actually am friends with them in st.johns Newfoundland.
Tell your buddies they are great musicians!
+Tamara - Journal Addict Well, strictly, this song takes place back in the early days when it was ambiguous- I would have guessed it was "The new-found land", because the province of Newfoundland is just an uncreative adaptation of "new(ly)-found land". So it was "the new-found land" at the time, which was presumably later named "Newfoundland".
A fine song in the maritime tradition - I will look out the CD as I sing with Kent based shanty crew ' Swinging the Lead ' .
This is so lovely! If you still want requests, could you find us some more English-sounding ballad-sounding songs?
Love this song.
like this story of the Titanic in April of 1912
Its about the migrants.
Doubt it they mention Newfoundland and cod, it's probably about fishermen
+codealamode101 it's about the people who migrated to Newfoundland from England
Nóra Molnár the new found land not Newfoundland it means the Americas
Koppy The Elf Nope, Its a Newfie Song, Carbonear is a place in Newfoundland, and Newfie is a island, so it's about Newfoundland.
@codealamode101 Yes, i know. But I think all people could feel like this, who need to left their home
For some reason me and my shipmate got our division to sing this our last night at RTC Great Lakes it was amazing
Robert Kimmel When I signed up for OCS, Rhode Island (I got DQ’d, but that’s alright) all the old salts at MEPS referred to Great Lakes as “Great Mistakes”.
“And when, at last, .... I stood in London with ten pounds in my hand - five of which I promptly lost - the ancestors dwelling in my blood who, all my life, had summoned me with insistent eldritch voices, murmured together, like contented cats.” P.L. Travers, What the Bee Knows: Reflections on Myth, Symbol, and Story
I'm part English too!
It's just too beautiful
Looking west from Liverpool right now, resect to our last generations, we walk in your foot steps.
Isn't it 'with nothing but our rice?'
@Emily Stremel no
Iggys song..... yay Arthur Kirkland
I found someone who understands
Empress of Weird I remember watching a episode of hetalia when I was 6 and know I watch hetalia. I'm American but I'm also a mutt. I'm Irish.
I knew when I saw this song I'd see a Hetalia comment
WOW,WOW, what a beautiful and touching song, i listen to it over and over : this is real music!!!!!
awesome song nice and slow
Proud to be associated with Canada
Respect from UK
i mean the UK, Canada is fine
@Egrith I am in the UK
God save the Queen! God Bless Newfoundland!
@Egrith northern Ireland voted to remain British you idiot. Their choice not the UK. Ffs you plastic paddies
I'm far from the shores of my native England, but in Ottawa, not Newfoundland. I was born and raised in Reading but now attend university in Ottawa.
@agenstmileyhaters if u r not Newfie or like us Newfies then gtfo and leave us alone ps learn proper English, you spell like a 3 year old :)
@CobraJaws98 It is very nice here, You should take a vacation here
Yes it is and more.
Knock off. It takes all kinds.
Try the Irish loop, south of St. John's. I read that Newfoundland has one of the greatest concentrations of Irish ex-pats, from such a small local in Ireland, than anywhere else in the world.
It wouldn't surprise me, Newfoundland actually looks a lot like Ireland. It was also settled by the Irish mostly. It would be like the English going to Australia or the Scots going to mainland Canada.
No words, just memories
All English Folkies have a soft spot for this tune it seems...myself included =)
One comment here: The first letter proper nouns have to be capitalized.
I live in souther Ontario I recomed come to Ontario right now
lovely song thanks......
Amen,Sister!
this sounds like celtic thunder, not great big sea
Beautiful!
you are rit about that. use newfie love are background... i know i do :)
Yo, I am from Newfoundland. LOL
cabbot found newfoundland
this song is good !
my niece who's father's family's from Newfoundland and is a fisherman makes me sing this to her all the time
cant wait till i can see all of Canada ( i'm CANADIAN and proud of it) i wanna see the rest of Canada so much
i wish i was from newfoundland, i love Canada i have only ben there once but i love it there. rock on Canada !
I wish I was a Newfoundlander...
That's what I meant :P But I was little and they made me kiss a stuffed puffin's butt lol
I'm 0/3 newfie, but love GBS just the same after visiting newfoundland and doing the initiation challenge (singing GBS song, drinking wine, and kissing a puffins butt).
Barqersbite you mean kissing the cod and taking a shot of screech?
to all you people saying "im a newfie" have a bita respect for your self and try being a newfoundlander
I was born in England, but live in Canada now. This makes me think of all the people who just packed up their stuff with their families and got on a boat, not really knowing what was on the other side when they got there. No way of seeing or hearing from most of your friends and remaining family again...wow. Love Newfies by the way.
@JeremyHill89
Sure, if that makes you happy, believe that.
I like how people feel proud for living in the area of newfoundland, yet little to none have anything to do working on the sea. It;s not where you live, it's what you do.
Respect to NFLD from Cape Breton Island
Love the low D whistle in it :)
this is napping music....... it will put you to sleep. fuck this province.
I'm watching this in Leeds about 54 miles from the shores of England, So not that far
I envy all newfoundlanders
@agenstmileyhaters Dude, for one thing, go back to school and learn grammar, punctuation, and spelling; you are doing yourself and your backwards-ass country's education system a grave disservice. Secondly, if it weren't for the British colonizing North America, you'd be speaking Spanish, French, or Cherokee, so show some respect. Thirdly, Miley Cyrus is only as popular as she is because of her father, Disney, and all the seven year olds that watch the damn show, listen to her music, and movies.
@Detano2 technically the vikings were the first to sail to the new world. hence the name
"New found land" for Newfoundland. but yes england was a major colonizing power back in the day.
Songs like these are what make me truly proud to be a Newfoundlander. I might not be a fisherman, but I can see the ocean from my window, the same ocean that my Grandfather fished in and his before he.
Nothing grander than seeing the mighty waves crash upon the rocky shore, with great eagles flying above and great whales frolicking below.
I love living on the rock.
i,m english and i love this song.
@luvalotbaybee dude all newfies are related lol.
Another brilliant album.
my mom's last name is Puddister, I'm part Newfoundlander, love GBS!
It's things like this that make me glad to be an "accidental Canadian" (a Montannan who was born across the border).
@agenstmileyhaters dose that mean, "i"m not a disney fan" or "no, i am a disney fan"?
@agenstmileyhaters you're right, like buy a Lamborghini, make it all wheel drive, put a lift kit on it, put off road tires on it, and go dune riding in the Sahara desert. but only Bam Margera would do something like that, do you watch Viva La Bam and Jackass?
@agenstmileyhaters how do you know if i do or don't ? and i dont even like the shit that they sing
@Detano2 and btw, her dad was famous before the show even started, he's a country singer. (that sucks ass)
@agenstmileyhaters well if ur, as your user name says, "against miley haters", then you fail, there is just as many miley haters out there as there is justin beiber haters, and trust me, the number of beiber haters are off the chart. (supposing someone was stupid enough to make a chart based on imposable numbers)
@agenstmileyhaters I'm not brtish
@agenstmileyhaters why do you defend miley, shes only famous because her dad is famous. and btw, i dont like soccer nor am i from England, but without England america wouldn't be the way it is today. anyone country could build a boat and sail to a new land, its just that England got there first. so if you insult England, you insult yourself.
@agenstmileyhaters I'm not from England
@agenstmileyhaters lol, ur dissing our country when your page is full of shit on how u want to fuk miley cyrus, your a joke
@agenstmileyhaters no YOU are shit, and so is your country
I love GBS and this is my favorite song of their. Love it!
One of the very best songs from Fortune's Favour and from Sean McCann because it came from his heart and soul. He noted that he wrote it in North Carolina while thinking of his own family so far away, and realized how the first immigrants to Newfoundland must have felt centuries ago, never knowing if they would ever get to say goodbye.
Ehhh. . im Novascotian <3 but still, them Newfies are crazy <3 ;D~
sean is a goof
@luvalotbaybee holy shit, ur lucky, i subscribe to you because of that
@jmacgft wtf ur 1 ucky guy
@jmacgft are you kiding??? being a newfoundlander is fuckin awsome, i may be only 1/3 newfie, but i feel as if im pure.
ROCK ON GBS!!!
woud all you people think that this would be a good song to preform on Canada day
I have to agree. The song is amazing an the boys are so great!
Seen these guys live last night and they were amazing. Best show ever
god damn i love this song so much