Absent Friends and You, Mary (Lines to Delia)

DESCRIPTION: "I've wandered many a league, (Delia), Since last with you I met," and he will wander many more, but amid all the new things he sees, he misses his friends and her. After a long voyage, he looks forward to returning to them
AUTHOR: William F. Spicer (see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1843 (The New World)
KEYWORDS: travel separation reunion love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Huntington-TheGam-MoreSongsWhalemenSang, pp. 312-313, "Lines to Delia" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Park Benjamin, ed., _The New World: A Weekly Family Journal of Popular Literature, Science, Art and News_, Vol. 6, No. 9 (New York: J. Winchester, Saturday, March 11, 1843, available on Google Books), p. 291, "(Lines from Abroad)" (1 text)
(no author listed), _Naval Songs: A Collection of Original, Selected, and Traditional Sea Songs_ (New York: Wm. A. Pond, 1883, available on Google Books), p. 14, "Absent Friends and You, Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
(no author listed), _The Most Popular Songs of Patriotism_ (New York: Hinds, Hayden & Eldredge, 1916, available on Google Books), p. 72, "Absent Friends and You, Mary" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #27900
NOTES [180 words]: In the original text, the girl was "Mary"; one suspects that the person who copied it into the 1851 logbook of The Three Brothers cited by Huntington put in the name of his own girl. It is nonetheless clearly the same song. Huntington also seems to have the author's name wrong; he gave it as "William F. Spenser." - RBW
[In the 1843 publication,] Tthe title is given as "Lines from Abroad" and the author is credited as "W. F. S. of the United States Navy." It has one less verse later versions, and another verse is completely different. I suspect Spicer revised it before having it published as sheet music. (And I have not found an online copy of the original sheet music, nor any proof that it exists as a separate publication.)
The author, William Francis Spicer, has been mentioned in a couple of biographical encyclopedias as author of "Absent Friends and You, Mary," as well as several other naval songs. - JD
The two later publications, Naval Songs and The Most Popular Songs of Patriotism call him "Commodore," so apparently he had a good career as a sailor. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: HGam312

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