by Thomas Moore (1779 - 1852)
There's a bower of roses
Language: English
There's a bower of roses, by Bendemeer's Stream, And the nightingale sings 'round it all the day long. In the time of my childhood 'Twas sweet like a dream, To sit by the roses And hear the bird's song. That bow'r and its music I ne'er can forget, But of when alone In the bloom of the year I think, "Is the nightingale singing there yet?" Are the roses still bright by the calm Bendemeer?" No, the roses soon withered that hung o'er the wave, But the blossoms were gathered While freshly they shone, And the dew was distilled On the flowers, that gave All the fragrance of summer - when summer is gone. Thus memory draws from delight ere it dies, An essence that breathes of it many a year. Thus, bright to my soul as 'twas then to my eyes, Is that bow'r on the banks of the calm Bendemeer.
About the headline (FAQ)
Confirmed with Thomas Moore, Lalla Rookh: an Oriental Romance, third edition, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, 1817, page 63. Appears in The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan.
Authorship:
- by Thomas Moore (1779 - 1852), no title, appears in Lalla Rookh, in The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme and Brown, first published 1817 [author's text checked 1 time 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 Henry Balfour Gardiner (1877 - 1950), "The Banks of calm Bendemeer", 1893 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Charles Marshall (1857 - 1927), "Bendemeer's Stream" [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Maude Valérie White (1855 - 1937), "There's a bower of roses", published 1881 [ voice and piano ], London: Boosey & Co. [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in French (Français), a translation by Sabine-Casimire-Amable Tastu, née Voiart (1795 - 1885) [an adaptation] ; composed by Giulio Alary, Alfredo Catalani.
- Also set in French (Français), a translation by Marceline Desbordes-Valmore (1786 - 1859) , "Chant d'une jeune esclave", subtitle: "Imité de Moore", written 1821, appears in Le Chansonnier des Grâces, first published 1821 [an adaptation] ; composed by Edmond Michotte.
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Friedrich Ludwig Breuer (1786 - 1833) , no title [an adaptation] ; composed by Franz Aloys Theodor Commer, Johann Peter Cornelius D'Alquen.
- Also set in Italian (Italiano), a translation by Sabine-Casimire-Amable Tastu, née Voiart (1795 - 1885) [an adaptation] ; composed by Alfredo Catalani.
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Melanie Trumbull
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 32
Word count: 152