Down by the Salley Gardens | Down by the Salley Gardens my love and I did meet

by William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939)

Down by the Salley Gardens my love and I...

Language: English

Available translation(s): FRE FRI GER

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.

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)

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"

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 [author's text checked 2 times 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 Samuel Hans Adler (b. 1928), "But I was young and foolish", 1954 [ baritone and piano ], from Three Songs, no. 1 [sung text not yet checked]
by Allan Blank (b. 1925), "Down by the Salley Gardens" [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by James Brash , "Down by the Salley Gardens", published 1945 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), "The Salley Gardens", published 1943 [ high voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by Alan Dudley Bush (1900 - 1995), "Down by the Salley Gardens" [sung text not yet checked]
by Rebecca Clarke (1886 - 1979), "Down by the Salley Gardens", 1919, published 1924 [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by Judith Cloud , "The Salley Gardens" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by June Harple Collins (b. 1915?), "Down by the Salley Gardens", published 1929 [ baritone (or vocal duet for alto and baritone) with piano ], from Two Songs [sung text not yet checked]
by Alan DeBeer , "Down by the Salley Gardens", published <<1940 [sung text not yet checked]
by Alice Decevee (b. 1904), "Down by the Salley Gardens", published <<1940 [sung text not yet checked]
by John Edmunds (1913 - 1986), "The Salley Gardens" [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
by Elaine M. Erickson (b. 1941), "Down by the Salley Gardens" [ soprano or tenor and strings ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Gerald Finzi (1901 - 1956), "The Salley Gardens" [sung text checked 1 time]
by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "Down by the Salley Gardens", 1920, published 1938 [ voice and piano ], from A First Volume of Ten Songs, no. 4, London: Oxford University Press [sung text checked 1 time]
by Irvin Hinchliffe , "Down by the Salley Gardens", published 1931, copyright © 1943 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Herbert Hughes (1882 - 1937), "Down by the Salley Gardens", published 1909 [ voice and piano ], note: an arrangement based on a traditional air called "The Maids of the Mourne Shore" [sung text not yet checked]
by John (Nicholson) Ireland (1879 - 1962), "The Salley Gardens", 1929-31, published 1934 [ voice and piano ], from Songs Sacred and Profane, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
by John Jeffreys (1927 - 2010), "The Salley Gardens" [ voice and piano ], several settings [sung text not yet checked]
by John Jeffreys (1927 - 2010), "I was young and foolish" [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Ellen Mandel , "Down by the Salley Gardens" [sung text not yet checked]
by Diana Methold , "Down by the Salley Gardens", published 1937 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Mary Plumstead (1905 - 1980), "Down by the Salley Gardens", published 1951 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Irena Regina Poldowski, née Wieniawski (1880 - 1932), "Down by the Salley Gardens", published 1900 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Robert Leon Rollin (b. 1947), "Down by the Salley Gardens" [ baritone, flute, oboe, piano ], from Four Songs of Dreams and Love [sung text not yet checked]
by Martin Edward Fallas Shaw (1875 - 1958), "Down by the Salley Gardens", published 1919 [ baritone voices and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
by Henry Stanley Taylor , "Down by the Salley Gardens", published 1963 [ voice and piano (or harp) with recorder ad libitum ] [sung text not yet checked]

Available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

Researcher for this text: Ted Perry

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 8
Word count: 91