Oh maybe it was yesterday, or fifty years ago! Meself was risin' early on a day for cuttin' rushes, Walkin' up the Brabla' burn, still the sun was low, Now I'd hear the burn run an' then I'd hear the thrushes. Young, still young! - an' drenchin' wet the grass, Wet the golden honeysuckle hangin' sweetly down; "Here lad, here! will ye follow where I pass, An' find me cuttin' rushes on the mountain." Then it was only yesterday, or fifty years or so? Rippin' round the bog pools high among the heather, The hook it made her hand sore, she had to leave it go, 'Twas me that cut the rushes then for her to bind together. Come, dear, come! an' back along the burn See the darlin' honeysuckle hangin' like a crown. Quick, one kiss, - "sure, there' someone at the turn!" Oh, we're afther cuttin' rushes on the mountain. Yesterday, yesterday, or fifty years ago I waken out o' dreams when I hear the summer thrushes. Oh, that's the Brabla' burn, I can hear it sing an' flow, For all that's fair, I'd sonner see a bunch o' green rushes. Run, run, run! can ye mind when we were young? The honeysuckle hangs above, the pool is dark an' brown: Sing, burn, sing! can ye mind the song ye sung The days we cut the rushes on the mountain?
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Authorship:
- by Agnes Shakespeare Higginson (1864 - 1955), as Moira O'Neill, appears in Songs of the Glens of Antrim [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir (1852 - 1924), "Cuttin' rushes", op. 77 no. 3, published 1901 [ low voice and piano ], from An Irish Idyll in Six Miniatures, no. 3, London, Boosey & Co. [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 232