Dead Men’s Ship

The mariner alone survives
Survives in living hell
Each sailor there does lose their lives
As he rings his bell

There among the rotting corpses
He is left to play
The wreak of their rotting limbs
The stench of their decay

For seven days on that death ship
The mariner does lie
Haunted by the curse of
Each dead sailor’s eye

Until at last King Neptune
Mercy does him show
The albatross falls from his neck
At last the curse does go

So upon a dead man’s ship
The rain comes tumbling down
So the dead men come to life
And start to move around

These dead men do not speak
Each is a living corpse
Yet the helmsman steers his ship
A steady north

King Neptune carries this ship
Dead sailors all him serve
Now the mariner repents
Each action and each word

So homeward the mariner floats
On King Neptune’s sea
And when it is his time to die
King Neptune sets him free

Then he’ll be amongst the waves
A mermaid will he love
Each day be like a summer’s day
Stare at the skies above

So upon a dead man’s ship
The rain comes tumbling down