Down by the Salley Gardens my love and I did meet (Yeats) (The LiederNet Archive: Texts and Translations to Lieder, mélodies, canzoni, and other classical vocal music)

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 easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;
But I, being young and foolish, with her did 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.

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View text with 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.

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 against a primary source]
by Allan Blank (b. 1925), "Down by the Salley Gardens" [medium voice and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
by James Brash , "Down by the Salley Gardens", published 1945. [voice and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
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 against a primary source]
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 against a primary source]
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 against a primary source]
by Alan DeBeer , "Down by the Salley Gardens", published <<1940. [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
by Alice Decevee (b. 1904), "Down by the Salley Gardens", published <<1940. [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
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 against a primary source]
by Gerald Finzi (1901 - 1956), "The Salley Gardens" [ sung text checked 1 time]
by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "Down by the Salley Gardens", 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 against a primary source]
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 against a primary source]
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 against a primary source]
by John Jeffreys (1927 - 2010), "I was young and foolish" [voice and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
by Ellen Mandel , "Down by the Salley Gardens" [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
by Diana Methold , "Down by the Salley Gardens", published 1937. [voice and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
by Mary Plumstead (1905 - 1980), "Down by the Salley Gardens", published 1951. [voice and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
by Irena Regina Poldowski, née Wieniawski (1880 - 1932), "Down by the Salley Gardens", published 1900. [voice and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
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 against a primary source]
by Martin Edward Fallas Shaw (1875 - 1958), "Down by the Salley Gardens", published 1919. [baritone voices and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
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 against a primary source]

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