Down by the Salley Gardens

Down by the Salley Gardens

Down by the Salley Gardens (Irish: Gort na Saileán) is a poem by William Butler Yeats published in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems in 1889. Yeats indicated in a note that it was "an attempt to reconstruct an old song from three lines imperfectly remembered by an old peasant woman in the village of Ballisodare, Sligo, who often sings them to herself."[1] The "old song" may have been the ballad "The Rambling Boys of Pleasure."[2]

The lyrics[3] to The Rambling Boys of Pleasure contain the following verse:

"It was down by Sally's Garden one evening late I took my way.

'Twas there I spied this pretty little girl, and those words to me sure she did say.

She advised me to take love easy, as the leaves grew on the tree.

But I was young and foolish, with my darling could not agree."

The similarity to the first verse of the Yeats version is unmistakable and would suggest that this was indeed the song Yeats remembered the old woman singing. The rest of the song, however, is quite different.

Yeats's original title, "An Old Song Re-Sung", reflected his debt to The Rambling Boys of Pleasure. It first appeared under its present title when it was reprinted in Poems in 1895.[4] The verse was subsequently set to music by Herbert Hughes to the air The Maids of the Mourne Shore in 1909. In the 1920s composer Rebecca Clarke (1886–1979) set the text to music.[5] There is also a vocal setting by the poet and composer Ivor Gurney, which was published in 1938; and another by Benjamin Britten published in 1943. The composer John Ireland earlier set the words to an original melody in his cycle "Songs Sacred and Profane', written in 1934.

"Salley" or "sally" is a form of the Standard English word "sallow", i.e., a tree of the genus Salix. It is close in sound to the Irish word saileach, meaning willow.

Contents

Poem

Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;
She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet.
She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;
But I, being young and foolish, with her did not agree.
In a field by the river my love and I did stand,
And on my leaning shoulder she placed her snow-white hand.
She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;
But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.

Location

It has been suggested that the location of the "Salley Gardens" was on the banks of the river at Ballysadare near Sligo where the residents cultivated trees to provide roof thatching materials.[6][7]

Recordings

The song has been part of the repertoire of many singers and groups. Notable recordings include:

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Quoted in M.H Abrams and Stephen Greenblatt eds., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. 2. New York: W.W. Norton, 2005. p. 2024.
  2. ^ Wilgus, D.K. (Apr. - Jun., 1979). ""Rose Connoley": An Irish Ballad". The Journal of American Folklore (American Folklore Society) 92 (364): 172–195. JSTOR 539387. 
  3. ^ http://sniff.numachi.com/pages/tiSALGARD3;ttSALGARD3;ttSALGARD3.1.html
  4. ^ Ford, Robert, W.B.Yeats: A Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 69
  5. ^ Jezic, D. P. (1988). Women composers: The lost tradition found (2nd ed., pp. 157-162). New York: The Feminist Press.
  6. ^ McGarry, James P (1976). Place names in the writings of William Butler Yeats. London, UK: Macmillan. pp. 79. 
  7. ^ Jeffares, A. Norman (1984). A new commentary on the poems of W.B. Yeats. Stanford,, CA USA: Stanford Universtiy Press. pp. 14. 
  8. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redbird_%28Redbird_album%29

External links


Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Поможем написать реферат

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Down By The Salley Gardens — ( Irish: Gort na Saileán ) is a well known poem by William Butler Yeats included in his book, The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems, published in 1889. Yeats indicated in a note that it was an attempt to reconstruct an old song from three lines …   Wikipedia

  • Down in the Willow Garden — also known as Rose Connelly Written by Unknown Original artist G. B. Grayson and Henry Whitter Recorded by Wade Mainer and Zeke Morris, Charlie Monroe, Art Garfunkel, The Everly Brothers, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Kristin Hersh. Down in the… …   Wikipedia

  • Salley Vickers — is an English novelist whose works include the word of mouth bestseller Miss Garnet s Angel , Mr Golightly s Holiday , The Other Side of You and Where Three Roads Meet , a retelling of the Oedipus myth to Sigmund Freud in the last months of his… …   Wikipedia

  • The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems — was the first collection of poems by William Butler Yeats. It was published in 1889. In addition to the title poem, the last epic scale poem that Yeats ever wrote, the book includes a number of short poems that Yeats would later collect under the …   Wikipedia

  • Fractale — Originaltitel フラクタル Transkription Furakutaru …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Martin Shaw (composer) — Martin Shaw Born March 9, 1875(1875 03 09) London Died October 24, 1958(1958 10 24) …   Wikipedia

  • Herbert Hughes (musicologist) — Herbert Hughes (1882 ndash; 1937) was an Irish English composer, music critic and collector of folk songs. He was born and brought up in Belfast, Ireland, but completed his formal music education at the Royal College of Music, London, graduating… …   Wikipedia

  • Michael Sweeney — For other people named Mike Sweeney, see Mike Sweeney (disambiguation). Michael Sweeney (born 1952) is an ASCAP award winning U.S. citizen composer[1] and musician. Contents 1 Biography 2 Compositions …   Wikipedia

  • William Butler Yeats — 1908 William Butler Yeats 1933 Wil …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • List of compositions by Rebecca Clarke — This is a list of compositions by the English composer Rebecca Clarke.* Wandrers Nachtlied (ca. 1903), song, text Goethe * Ah, for the red spring rose (1904), song * Aufblick (1904), text Richard Dehmel * Chanson (ca. 1904), text Maurice… …   Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
… Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”