4.14 Canadian History Through Poetry and Lyrics - Part Two

Another Read

As you read the poem one more time, try to read it with rhythm and expression. Think about how it tells the story of an important Canadian symbol and helps us to understand why the Bluenose is on stamps, the dime, and in song.

Bluenose (from the Irish Rovers album "Tall Ships and Salty Dogs", 1978)

In the town of Lunenburg down Nova Scotia way

In nineteen twenty-one on a windy day

A sailing ship was born, "Bluenose" was her name

You'll never see her kind again 

 

{CHORUS} Bluenose, the ocean knows her name

Sailors know how proud a ship was she

Bluenose, leaning in the wind

Racing ev'ry way on the sea 

 

Her hull was long and black, her sails were snowy white

She looked just like a young bird in flight

And from the very first, the Bluenose loved to run

She loved the smell of sea and sun 

 

{CHORUS} Bluenose, the ocean knows her name

Sailors know how proud a ship was she

Bluenose, leaning in the wind

Racing ev'ry way on the sea 

 

For twenty-five long years she ruled the Northern sea

Riding like a queen on the tide

In the Caribbean one dark and stormy day

She ran upon a reef and died 

 

{CHORUS} Bluenose, the ocean knows her name

Sailors know how proud a ship was she

Bluenose, leaning in the wind

Racing ev'ry way on the sea 

 

Now just the other day, down Nova Scotia way

In Lunenburg they christened a ship

Just like the old Bluenose, down to the very name

The Bluenose lives and sails again 

 

{CHORUS} Bluenose, the ocean knows her name

Sailors know how proud a ship was she

Bluenose, leaning in the wind

Racing ev'ry way on the sea