'on the last day of september'

"the big ship sails through the alley alley O, alley alley O, alley alley O,
 the big ship sails through the alley alley O,
 on the last day of september.

the captain said, 'it will never, never do, it will never, never do,
 it will never, never do', etc

the big ship sank to the bottom of the sea, the bottom of the sea,
the bottom of the sea, etc.

we all dip our heads in the deep blue sea, the deep blue sea,
the deep blue sea, etc."

collected by folklorist and collector of children's games elizabeth matterson, or at least collected by her, though some claim trad. popularly supposed (in salford) to be about the manchester ship canal, though some claim it is in fact about the suez canal. apparently hazel blears' (MP’s) brother is one of the boys singing it in 'a taste of honey', she herself features as a salford urchin.


in "the singing game" (iona and peter opie, OUP, 1985) they call it the only survivor of the ancient "thread the needle" game, of which visual record goes back to the lorenzetti frescos in siena in 1350. variations are found in appalachian dance "killiecrankie, winding up the maple leaf”, etc. and in england under "dan, dan, thread the needle”.  there's video of the song being sung and the 'thread the needle' game being played by a group of put upon looking teenagers (guaranteed school shooters the lot of them).

anyway what brought it to horsemouth’s mind was the end-stop line; “.... on the last day of september.”

horsemouth has made it to the end of the month (there’s just october, november and half of december to go) before the break that shall not be named. he’s published his books read and gigs gone to list for the month.

the sun now rises south of horsemouth’s house and so illuminates his bedroom in the morning, it barely clears the rooftops though, the back garden is in shade until the afternoon.

starting monday - october and through the week with zbigniew herbert’s report from the besieged city.