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]1 easy, as the leaves grow on the [tree]2; But I, being young and foolish, with her [did]3 not agree. In a field by the river my love and I did stand, And on my leaning shoulder she laid 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.
Two Songs
Song Cycle by June Harple Collins (b. 1915?)
?. Down by the Salley Gardens  [sung text not yet checked]
Authorship:
- by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939), title 1: "An old song re-sung", title 2: "Down by the Salley Gardens", appears in The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems, first published 1889
See other settings of this text.
Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):
- FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2016, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- FRI Frisian (Geart van der Meer) , "Bij de marswâl", copyright © 2013, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
- GER German (Deutsch) (Sharon Krebs) , copyright © 2015, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
Retitled "Down by the Salley Gardens" with the subtitle "An old song re-sung" when republished in Poems in 1895.
Note: "salley" is an anglicized form of the Irish word "saileach", which means willow.
1 Gurney: "life"2 Edmunds: "trees"
3 Edmunds, Gurney: "would"
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry