(From “The Pirates of Pooilvaash”)
A song of the sea is the shanty for me,
Yo ho ho, and a ...
WT wrote musical operettas for performance by his church family at Bucks Road Methodist Church, Douglas, and also a number for performance at the schools where he was headteacher: Foxdale and Victoria Road Schools. The poems in the collection ‘Lays from the Plays’ were song lyrics from the operettas published in the Manx Weekly Times throughout 1963, when they would have been recognised and remembered by the individuals who had enjoyed performing them. Not all the lyrics from each operettas are shown here, just the ones that appeared in the paper.
For an alphabetical list of titles of these lyrics Click here
(From “The Pirates of Pooilvaash”)
A song of the sea is the shanty for me,
Yo ho ho, and a ...
(From “A Song of Sherwood”)
Sing a song, a song of Baldwyn,
Home of solitude;
A day is long, is ...
(From “Fenella and the Moonflower”)
Seven colours in the rainbow, that’s the general rule;
And seven wonders in the world ...
(From “Fenella and the Moonflower”)
We’ve charms to cure all sickness,
And our doctors know their stuff.
Our treatments act ...
(From “The Maid of Ballalonna”)
Where “Themselves” are meeting nightly
Is the hollow past the bridge.
Few can see their ...
(From “As Good as Gold”)
When I add two and two I know quite well, I do,
The answer should ...
(From “As Good as Gold”)
Butterflies, butterflies everywhere
Flutter and dance in the golden air,
Lighting on petals of white ...
(From “A Song of Sherwood”)
With apologies to Tennyson
By all the flowers that spring
And over Mannin fling
A ...
(From “Fenella and the Moonflower”)
We are fairies, little fairies,
We don’t know what woe or care is
In our ...
(From “The Shepherdess and the Sweep”)
Ah, freedom is a noble thing,
A noble thing forsooth !
But many a ...
(From “The Shepherdess and the Sweep”)
Home of my birth I cleave to thee,
Wherever I roam over land and ...
(From “Just Like a Dream”)
Just like a dream that comes in the night,
Just like a dream that fades ...
(From “The Lord of Manninland”)
In pack of cards you see
A mixed and varied company;
Kings and queens and ...
(From “A Meeting of the Institute” )
Loyal women of the nation
Let us have one common aim,
Strongly in ...
(From “The Maid of Ballalonna”)
Here I sit a-spinning all the night through,
Spinning at the whizzing wheel,
The flashing ...
(From “The Lord of ManninLand”)
Hail to our Sovereign Liege,
Lord of Manninland !
To him our hearts we pledge,...
(From “The Maid of Ballalonna”)
Oh, Phynnoderee, Phynnoderee,
Phynnoderee, that’s me.
I work all night and I take delight
In ...
(From “The Prince of Ganderwing”)
I drift along the shore;
Oh hear the song of Leonore !
I wander alone...
(From “Fenella and the Moonflower”)
In a cave near Greeba summit
There I live, unseen, alone.
Dropping like a bolt ...
(From “The Pirates of Pooilvaash”)
Arbory girls are bonny
But none so fair as she
Who lives at Ballaglonney
And ...
(From “The Maid of Ballalonna”)
Once there was a wife and lazy was she,
What a lazy wife, what a ...
(From “The Shepherdess and the Sweep”)
I am a blacksmith, that’s my task;
I ply it day and night.
One ...
(From “The Maid of Ballalonna”)
Oh, ho, for the farmer of Ballamoot
Who works all day on the land.
He ...
(From “The Lord of Manninland”)
If everyone lived in a garden
Surrounded by blossoms fair,
Their hearts they would not ...
(From “Fenella and the Moonflower”)
If someone goes mad and becomes a crazy loon;
If poets start singing of snowdrops ...
(From “Just like a Dream” )
We’re huntin’ the country in search of a fox,
Or in fact any elephant, ...
(From “Fenella and the Moonflower”)
I was a merry miller once beside the River Dhoo;
I worked and sang from ...
(From “Miners to the Rescue”)
The miners of Foxdale they dig out their metal
Wresting the ore from its fastness ...
(From “The Pirates of Pooilvaash”)
The Pirates of Pooilvaash are a fierce and doughty lot !
What others never learn ...
(From “The Shepherdess and the Sweep”)
I love to see the stars at night
Above the swaying trees,
Their tiny ...
(From “A Song of Sherwood”)
With apologies to Tennyson
There is no land like Mona
Where’er the light of day ...
(From “Just Like a Dream” )
When a girl is only seven
Her one idea of heaven
Is a place ...