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Ere the twilight bat was flitting, In the sunset, at her knitting, Sang a lonely maiden, sitting Underneath her threshold tree; And, ere daylight died before us, And the vesper stars shone o'er us, Fitful rose her tender chorus "Jamie's on the stormy sea!"
Warmly shone the sunset glowing; Sweetly breath'd the young flow'rs blowing; Earth, with beauty overflowing, Seem'd the home of love to be; As those angel tones ascending, With the scene and season blending, Ever had the same low ending "Jamie's on the stormy sea!"
Curfew bells remotely ringing, Mingled with that sweet voice singing And the last red ray seemed clinging Lingeringly to tower and tree; Nearer as I came, and nearer, Finer rose the notes, and clearer; Oh! 'twas heaven itself to hear her "Jamie's on the stormy sea!"
"Blow, ye west winds! blandly hover O'er the bark that bears my lover; Gently blow, and bear him over To his own dear home and me; For, when night winds bend the willow, Sleep forsakes my lonely pillow, Thinking of the foaming billow Jamie's on the stormy sea!"
How could I but list, but linger, To the song, and near the singer, Sweetly wooing heaven to bring her Jamie from the stormy sea; And while yet her lips did name me, Forth I sprang - my heart o'ercame me "Grieve no more, sweet, I am Jamie, Home returned to love and thee!" |
Bernard Covert. "Jamie's on the Stormy Sea: Ballad." Music: Bernard Covert. First line of text: "Ere the twilight bat was flitting In the sunset, at her knitting." Boston: Oliver Ditson. 1847.
- Score may be found at "The Lester S. Levy Collection of Sheet Music," levysheetmusic.mse.jhu.edu.
- Abby Hutchinson (later, Abby Hutchinson Patton) sang "Jamie's on the Stormy Sea." "Possessing a large share of the 'gift,' and blending with her genial nature a smiling face radiant with the joys of conscious innocence, she modulated her voice in the harmony perfected by her own sweet contralto, or chanted her little 'Spider and the Fly' so naturally, that it gave the highest emotions of pleasure to the multitudes that heard it, as also her 'Jamie's on the Stormy Sea,' with the finale, 'Home returned to Love and Thee,' given with that touching naturalness peculiar to those bewitching sounds." - Joshua Hutchinson, A Brief Narrative of the Hutchinson Family (Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1874), 54.
- Not only did Bernard Covert write a number of songs that the Hutchinsons performed, he also served as their advance agent in 1863 and sang with them in 1876 and probably at other times, as well. "Welcome to Jenny Lind," with lyrics by Jesse Hutchinson, Jr., was sung to the tune of "Jamie's on the Stormy Sea."
![[earliest Hutchinson Family publicity likeness]](http://www.oocities.org/unclesamsfarm/quartet342.jpg)
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