The narrator tells the story as it was heard without supplying a year, place or verifiable people. Verse three explicitly says there is no chorus, putting repeated waiting beside a form without the usual return. No homecoming is invented, and this new work is not presented as a traditional historical record.
The direction draws on sean-nós rubato, ornamented declamation and female alto, centred on an unaccompanied feeling, with a low drone late and one final bodhrán beat. It also requests instrumental openings and interludes. These are arrangement ideas, not proof of an entirely a cappella recording. The published words are English, not Irish.
Read the lyrics
[Verse 1]
I will tell it as it was told to me
with no clock in the room
the boat went out on a Thursday tide
and the sea kept what it took
[Verse 2]
His mother stood at the water's edge
for forty winters more
and every year she turned the lamp
towards the empty shore
[Verse 3]
There is no chorus to this one
there is no place to rest
you hold the note as long as breath
and that is all you're asked
