the dutchman s not the kind of man to keep his thumb jammed in the dam that holds his dreams in but that s a secret that only margaret knows when amsterdam is golden in the morning margaret brings him breakfast she believes him he thinks the tulips bloom beneath the snow he s mad as he can be but margaret only sees that sometimes sometimes she sees her unborn children in his eyes let us go to the banks of the ocean where the walls rise above the zuider zee long ago i used to be a young man but dear margaret remembers that for me the dutchman still wears wooden shoes his cap and coat are patched with the love that margaret sewed there sometimes he thinks he s still in rotterdam he watches the tug boats down canals and calls out to them when he thinks he knows the captain till margaret comes to take him home again through unforgiving streets that trip him though she holds his arm sometimes he thinks he s alone and he calls her name let us go to the banks of the ocean where the walls rise above the zuiderzee long ago i used to be a young man but dear margaret remembers that for me the windmills whirl the winter in she winds his muffler tighter and they sit in the kitchen some tea with whiskey keeps away the dew he sees her for a moment calls her name she makes his bed up singing some old love song she learned it when the tune was very new he hums a line or two they hum together in the dark the dutchman falls asleep and margaret blows the candle out let us go to the banks of the ocean where the walls rise above the zuiderzee long ago i used to be a young man but dear margaret remembers that for me