Up in Massachusetts, there's a little spit of land   The men who make the maps, yes, they call the place Cape Ann   The men who do the fishing, call it Gloucester Harbor Sound   But the women left behind, they call the place Dogtown      The men go out for whaling, past the breakers and the fogs   The women stay home waiting, they're protected by the dogs   A tough old whaler woman who had seen three husbands drown   Polled the population and she named the place Dogtown      There's all these gray faced women in their black widow's gowns   Living in this grave yard granite town   Yeah, you soon learn there's many more than one way to drown   That's while going to the dogs here in Dogtown      And she speaks, my father was a merchant all in the Boston fief   When my husband came and asked him for my hand   But little did I know then that a Gloucester whaler's wife   Marries, but the sea salt and the sand      He took me up to Dogtown the day I was a bride   We had ten days together before he left my side   He's the first mate of a whaling ship, the keeper of the log   He said, "Farewell, my darling, I'm going to leave you with my dog"      And I have seen the splintered timbers of a hundred shattered hulls   Known the silence of the granite and the screeching of the gulls   I've heard that crazy widow Cather walk the harbor as she raves   At the endless rolling whisper of the waves      Sitting by the fireside, the embers slowly die   Is it a sign of weakness when a woman wants to cry?   The dog is closely watching the fire glints in his eye   No use to go to sleep this early, no use to even try      My blood beats like a woman's, I've got a woman's breast and thighs   But where am I to offer them, to the ocean or the skies?   Living with this silent dog, all the moments of my life   He has been my only husband, am I a widow or his wife?      Yes, it's a Dogtown and it's a fog town   And there's nothing around 'cept the sea pounding granite ground   And this black midnight horror of a hound      I'm standing on this craggy cliff, my eyes fixed on the sea   Six months past when his ship was due, I'm a widow to be   For liking this half living with the lonely and the fog   You need the bastard of the mating of a woman and a dog      And I have seen the splintered timbers of a hundred shattered hulls   Known the silence of the granite and the screeching of the gulls   I've heard that crazy widow Cather walk the harbor as she raves   At the endless rolling whisper of the waves      At the endless rolling whisper of the waves   At the endless rolling whisper of the waves