I was a good man "I think"... The tide of my affairs was rising, the world was the bit in my horse's mouth.

What is going on with me ?
Sleep and calm from me both flee.
Quite a trifle it may be,
Yet upsets me dreadfully !

Darling, sailing north to sea,
Parting with me tenderly,
Left a fir-tree marked for me
with a notch for memory...

"If it's overgrown", he said,
"Never will I come back here;
Hurricanes won't spare my head !
Never will I see you, dear !"

So I pine, poor girl, once gay;
Up the cliffs I climb each day.
Such a trifle, I must say,
Yet each day I waste away.

Every morning without cease
I recut that notch again
Tell me, oceans, tell me, seas,
Seaways shining on the main !
Is he live and hale, and where
Does he roam ? 
Dispel my care !

Waves roll homeward over seas,
Homeward flies th nippy breeze,
Yet my darling can't be seen...

Must I cut our fir-tree clean
Through the stem, do tell me please ?

But I was a good man with my horse,
"I think"...