Rockaway (On Old Long Island's Sea-Girt Shore)

DESCRIPTION: "On old Long Island's sea-girt shore Many an hour I've whiled away, Listening to the breakers' roar That washes the beach at Rockaway." The singer describes the beach, the waves, the moon over the water
AUTHOR: Words: Henry John Sharpe / Music: Henry Russell (source: Sheet music in the Lecy collection)
EARLIEST DATE: 1840 (sheet music)
KEYWORDS: nonballad sea
FOUND IN: US(MA)
REFERENCES (1 citation):
Shoemaker-MountainMinstrelsyOfPennsylvania, p. 220, "(On old Long Island's sea-girt shore)" (1 fragment)
Roud #V14998
BROADSIDES:
Bodleian, Harding B 11(4266), "Rockaway," E. M. A. Hodges (London), 1846-1854; also Harding B 18(703), "Rockaway," H. de Marsan (New York), c. 1860
NOTES [116 words]: It's not obvious why the poet chose the particular beach at Rockaway. Rockaway Beach is in Queen's, New York. I'm a bit surprised to see it commemorated in such an early poem, since (based on Wikipedia) it didn't gain much attention until the late nineteenth century.
The piece is popular enough to have been parodized: "On old Long Island's sea-girt shore We caught a cod the other day; He never had been there before, And wished that he had stayed away."
For background on Henry Russell, see "Cheer, Boys, Cheer (II)."
Unlike Russell, Henry John Sharpe seems to have been pretty obscure; a casual search failed to turn up anything else he wrote. If this is a typical sample, I can see why. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.4
File: Shoe220

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