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Our history runs down our rivers |
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Down our rivers to the sea |
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Reminds us of the things that matter |
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Home and heart and history |
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And all our sins will be forgiven |
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Washed away to set us free |
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By the rivers that run through our homesteads |
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By myth and modal melody |
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I traced these rivers from the cities to the seas |
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To remind me of what |
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I already know |
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I traced the shorelines through a thousand estuaries |
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To remind me an island is my home |
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An island is my home |
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I traveled far across this country |
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Northumberland to |
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Southern Downs |
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I wandered up the rolling |
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HumberAnd down the |
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Thames to |
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London town |
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Countless lives were lived and lingered |
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In the cuts, swerves, and the fells |
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I left a tapestry called |
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EnglandAnd life and those who lived it well |
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I traced these rivers from the cities to the seas |
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To remind me of what |
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I already know |
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I traced the shorelines through a thousand estuaries |
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To remind me an island is my home |
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An island is my home |
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Round here the sky is a little closer |
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A little closer to the ground |
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It's hard for someone to get lost here |
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Harder still to get found |
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Though I've seen a thousand rivers |
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From the Mississippi to the |
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RhineThe only place that |
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I'll lay my hat down |
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Is by an English riverside |
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I traced these rivers from the cities to the seas |
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To remind me of what |
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I already know |
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I traced the shorelines through a thousand estuaries |
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To remind me an island is my home |
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An island is my home |
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So place your trust into the sea |
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It's kept us safe for centuries |
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It shaped our shores and steadily |
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Its care has brought us, come |
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When I die, |
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I hope to be buried out in |
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English seas |
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So all that then remains of me |
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Will lap against these shores |
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Until England is no more |
