Rogue’s Gallery: The Art of the Siren, #21
Song: Lucinda Williams: Bonnie Portmore (3:36 minutes)
from Rogue’s Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs, and Chanteys, ANTI- 2006.
Buy CD in Germany and elsewhere.
Image: MyFlyAway: Moving, August 20, 2008.
Lyrics:
O Bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand,
And the more I think on you, the more I think long.
If I had you now as I had once before,
All the lords in old England would not purchase Portmore.O Bonny Portmore, I am sorry to see
Such a woeful destruction of your ornament tree,
For it stood on your shore for many’s the long day
Till the long boats of Antrim came to float it away.All the birds in the forest they bitterly weep,
Saying “where will we shelter or where will we sleep?”
For the Oak and the Ash they are all cutten down,
And the walls of Bonny Portmore are all down to the ground.O Bonny Portmore, you shine where you stand,
And the more I think on you the more I think long.
If I had you now as I had once before,
All the lords in old England would not purchase Portmore.
Explanatory liner notes by ANTI-, based on the Wikipedia article:
This Celtic song mourns the destruction of the hardwood forests of Ireland, primarily for English military and shipbuilding purposes. The Great Oak of Portmore stood near Portmore castle on the shores of Lough Beg.
