LiederNet logo

CONTENTS

×
  • Home | Introduction
  • Composers (20,110)
  • Text Authors (19,487)
  • Go to a Random Text
  • What’s New
  • A Small Tour
  • FAQ & Links
  • Donors
  • DONATE

UTILITIES

  • Search Everything
  • Search by Surname
  • Search by Title or First Line
  • Search by Year
  • Search by Collection

CREDITS

  • Emily Ezust
  • Contributors (1,114)
  • Contact Information
  • Bibliography

  • Copyright Statement
  • Privacy Policy

Follow us on Facebook

by Alfred Perceval Graves (1846 - 1931)

Mary, what's the matter?
Language: English 
"Now, Mary, what's the matter
What's come o'er you, dear,
That all your lightsome chatter
Is no more to hear?"
"'Tis nothing, mother deary,
Worth your care at all.
Who'd not be dull and weary
In so dark a Fall?"

"Because brown leaves are fluttering, 
Skies are seldom bright,
Will heart-whole girls go uttering
Sighs from morn to night?"
"Well since you're so perceiving,
Mothereen astore,
P'raps I've been make-believing,
Though my heart was sore."

"Would Mary's heart be sorer,
If one Myles O'Hea
Had asked her father for her
And got his wish to-day?"
"O Mother there's brave news for me,
Now you've brought me joy!"
"My dear, if you'd set, 'Choose for me!'
I'd have chose that boy."

Text Authorship:

  • by Alfred Perceval Graves (1846 - 1931) [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), "Mary, what's the matter?", op. 76 no. 13, published 1901 [voice and piano], from Songs of Erin, no. 13, London, Boosey [
     text verified 1 time
    ]

Researcher for this page: Mike Pearson

This text was added to the website: 2016-09-13
Line count: 24
Word count: 120

Gentle Reminder

This website began in 1995 as a personal project by Emily Ezust, who has been working on it full-time without a salary since 2008. Our research has never had any government or institutional funding, so if you found the information here useful, please consider making a donation. Your help is greatly appreciated!
–Emily Ezust, Founder

Donate

We use cookies for internal analytics and to earn much-needed advertising revenue. (Did you know you can help support us by turning off ad-blockers?) To learn more, see our Privacy Policy. To learn how to opt out of cookies, please visit this site.

I acknowledge the use of cookies

Contact
Copyright
Privacy

Copyright © 2025 The LiederNet Archive

Site redesign by Shawn Thuris