by Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy (1844 - 1881)
Along the garden ways just now
Language: English
Along the garden ways just now
I heard the flowers speak;
The white rose told me of your brow,
The red rose of your cheek;
The lily of your bended head,
The bindweed of your hair:
Each looked its loveliest and said
You were more fair.
I went into the wood anon,
And heard the wild birds sing
How sweet you were; they warbled on,
Piped, trilled the self-same thing.
Thrush, blackbird, linnet, without pause,
The burden did repeat,
And still began again because
You were more sweet.
And then I went down to the sea,
And heard it murmuring too,
Part of an ancient mystery,
All made of me and you.
How many a thousand years ago
I loved, and you were sweet--
Longer I could not stay, and so
I fled back to your feet.
About the headline (FAQ)
Text Authorship:
- by Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy (1844 - 1881), "A Love Symphony", appears in Songs of a Worker, first published 1881 [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 J. Arthur Clegg , "A Love Symphony", published c1900 [ chorus a cappella ], London : Novello ; prize-winning composition at the Morecambe Festival (1900) [sung text not yet checked]
- by Blair Fairchild (1877 - 1933), "A Love Symphony", published 1904 [ medium voice and piano ], from Two Songs, no. 1, NY : G. Schirmer [sung text not yet checked]
- by Joseph Holbrooke (1878 - 1958), "A Love Symphony", op. 7 (Six Songs) no. 3, published 1903 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Clayton Johns (1857 - 1932), "You were more fair", published 1902 [ voice and piano ], Cincinnati : Church [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website: 2010-04-26
Line count: 24
Word count: 137