I\'d always just assumed that the narrator was singing to a woman, and I kind of put this song in the same category in my mind with other doomed tales of romance involving naval officers of the 19th/20th centuries such as South Pacific and Madame Butterfly. Although I never really thought about why this particular sailor isn\'t ever planning to return to the islands and the woman he loves, he makes it pretty clear that even if he does survive the anticipated battles, he won\'t be coming back. I guess there\'s really only one reason that makes sense: family obligations. Either he is already married -- and he would hardly be the first person separated from his family for an indefinite period of time who decided to seek comfort closer at hand -- or else once he returns, his family will pressure him into remaining at home and marrying Sally With the Huge Tracts of Land. If the singer were truly unencumbered, I feel that he\'d somehow manage to find a way back to the woman and the islands he loves. I don\'t see him as forsaking her or the unnamed but presumably tropial paradise all for love of the Yorkshire Dales, but rather, I see him gazing out upon the latter and wishing with all his heart that he were back on the islands. He is, or will be, regretful but resigned to the fact that his obligations prevent that from ever happening again.\n\nIs this guy as I envision him somewhat of a cad for a) cheating on one woman while b) perhaps leading on a second woman? In his situation, i wouldn\'t presume to judge him -- and if it makes any difference, which it probably shouldn\'t, I\'m female and was once married to someone in the military. (And yeah, it didn\'t work out, but I hold no grudges.) Love doesn\'t always lend itself to happily ever afters, even more so, one imagines, in an age where marriages may have been made more for convenience than love. (I always thought that this song was set in the Napoleonic era.) Whatever the narrator may be, though, at least he\'s not like Lieutenant Stinkerton from Madame Butterfly, a "man" who had the nerve to return to the Port of Nagasaki with his western wife in tow, thus breaking Butterfly\'s heart and causing her to end her own life. Him I will judge, since he outright lied and was a coward, to boot. The Last Farewell narrator, however, is telling the truth -- perhaps not the whole truth, and undoubtedly in this day and age the woman he\'s leaving would want more of an explanation than "I can\'t ever come back because ... I just can\'t," but at least he\'s not making false promises.
I\'d always just assumed that the narrator was singing to a woman, and I kind of put this song in the same category in my mind with other doomed tales of romance involving naval officers of the 19th/20th centuries such as South Pacific and Madame Butterfly. Although I never really thought about why this particular sailor isn\'t ever planning to return to the islands and the woman he loves, he makes it pretty clear that even if he does survive the anticipated battles, he won\'t be coming back. I guess there\'s really only one reason that makes sense: family obligations. Either he is already married -- and he would hardly be the first person separated from his family for an indefinite period of time who decided to seek comfort closer at hand -- or else once he returns, his family will pressure him into remaining at home and marrying Sally With the Huge Tracts of Land. If the singer were truly unencumbered, I feel that he\'d somehow manage to find a way back to the woman and the islands he loves. I don\'t see him as forsaking her or the unnamed but presumably tropial paradise all for love of the Yorkshire Dales, but rather, I see him gazing out upon the latter and wishing with all his heart that he were back on the islands. He is, or will be, regretful but resigned to the fact that his obligations prevent that from ever happening again.\n\nIs this guy as I envision him somewhat of a cad for a) cheating on one woman while b) perhaps leading on a second woman? In his situation, i wouldn\'t presume to judge him -- and if it makes any difference, which it probably shouldn\'t, I\'m female and was once married to someone in the military. (And yeah, it didn\'t work out, but I hold no grudges.) Love doesn\'t always lend itself to happily ever afters, even more so, one imagines, in an age where marriages may have been made more for convenience than love. (I always thought that this song was set in the Napoleonic era.) Whatever the narrator may be, though, at least he\'s not like Lieutenant Stinkerton from Madame Butterfly, a "man" who had the nerve to return to the Port of Nagasaki with his western wife in tow, thus breaking Butterfly\'s heart and causing her to end her own life. Him I will judge, since he outright lied and was a coward, to boot. The Last Farewell narrator, however, is telling the truth -- perhaps not the whole truth, and undoubtedly in this day and age the woman he\'s leaving would want more of an explanation than "I can\'t ever come back because ... I just can\'t," but at least he\'s not making false promises.