February 2025: The Old Figurehead Carver

Submitted by Cindy Kallet

This song, crafted by the inimitable and much-missed Dick Swain from a poem by Hiram Cody, tells the story of a old wood carver, who, even as his eyesight falters and his hands become less sure, can still remember in vivid detail his experience of carving the figurehead for the Marco Polo, built in St. John, New Brunswick in 1851, and considered at the time to be the fastest clipper ship in the world. Dick set the poem to music and added a chorus.

Below are links to both Dick Swain and John Roberts singing the song. Unfortunately, the video of Dick doesn’t start until partway through the first verse, but you can hear his own melody to the chorus, and then John’s modification of it.

Lyrics: The Old Figurehead Carver

Adapted from a poem by Hiram Cody in Songs of a Bluenose, McClelland & Stewart, Toronto, Canada, 1925
Music & chorus by Dick Swain

I have done my share of carving figureheads of quaint design
For the Olives and the Ruddicks and the famous Black Ball Line
Brigantines and barks and clippers, brigs and schooners, lithe and tall
But the bounding Marco Polo was the flower of them all.

Chorus:
While my hands are steady, while my eyes are good,
I will carve the music of the wind into the wood.

I can see that white-winged clipper reeling under scudding clouds
Tramping down a hazy skyline with a Norther in her shrouds
I can feel her lines of beauty, see her flecked with spume and brine
As she drives her scuppers under, and that figurehead of mine.

‘Twas of seasoned pine I made it, clear from outer bark to core
From the finest piece of timber, from the mast-pond on Straight Shore
Every bite of axe or chisel, every ringing mallet welt
Wrought from out that block of timber all the spirit that I felt.

I had read of Marco Polo, til his daring deeds were mine
And I say them all a-glowing in that balsam-scented pine
Saw his eyes alight with purpose, facing every vagrant breeze
Saw him lilting free and careless over all the seven seas.

That was how I did my carving, beat of heart and stroke of hand
Putting into life and action all the purpose that I planned
Flowing robes and wind-tossed tresses, forms of beauty, strength, design
I saw them all and tried to carve them in that figurehead of mine.

And when my hands are feeble, and my outward eyes grow dim
I will see again those clippers reeling o’er the ocean’s rim
Great white fleet of sailing rovers, wind above and surf beneath
With the Marco Polo leading, and my carving in her teeth.

Cindy Kallet writes: I am a singer, guitar player, and songwriter who has lived in New England most of my life. I have been drawn to both songs of the sea as well as songs with lyrics that create vivid pictures, illuminate personal experiences, and evoke a strong sense of place. In my opinion, “The Old Figurehead Carver” does it all! Grey Larsen and I have performed this song with Grey playing concertina and me playing the “fiola” (a violin strung up as a viola).