Contents • • • • • • • • History [ ] Yeats indicated in a note that it was 'an attempt to reconstruct an old song from three lines imperfectly remembered by an old peasant woman in the village of,, who often sings them to herself.' The 'old song' may have been the ballad The Rambling Boys of Pleasure which contains the following verse: 'Down by yon flowery garden my love and I we first did meet. I took her in my arms and to her I gave kisses sweet She bade me take life easy just as the leaves fall from the tree. But I being young and foolish, with my darling did not agree.'

Download 1 free sheet music and scores in format PDF: britten sally gardens. Down by the Sally Gardens (Dyson, Peter) Movements/Sections Mov'ts/Sec's: 1 Composition Year. PDF typeset by arranger Peter Dyson (2011/6/1) Pub lisher.

The similarity to the first verse of the Yeats version is unmistakable and would suggest that this was indeed the song Yeats remembered the old woman singing. The rest of the song, however, is quite different. Yeats's original title, 'An Old Song Re-Sung', reflected his debt to The Rambling Boys of Pleasure. It first appeared under its present title when it was reprinted in Poems in 1895. Poem [ ] 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 would 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. Location [ ] It has been suggested that the location of the 'Salley Gardens' was on the banks of the river at Ballysadare near where the residents cultivated trees to provide roof materials. 'Salley' or 'sally' is a form of the Standard English word 'sallow', i.e., a tree of the genus. It is close in sound to the Irish word saileach, meaning.

Musical settings [ ] The verse was subsequently set to music by to the traditional (also known as 'The Maids of Mourne Shore') in 1909. In the 1920s composer (1886–1979) set the text to her own music. The composer (1879–1962) set the words to an original melody in his, written in 1929–31. There is also a vocal setting by the poet and composer, which was published in 1938.

Published a setting of the poem in 1943. In 1988, the American composer wrote and published his setting with the publishing company.

Recordings [ ] The poem has been part of the repertoire of many singers and groups, mostly set on 'The Maids of Mourne Shore's melody. Retrieved November 23, 2014. • Quoted in M.H Abrams and Stephen Greenblatt eds., The Norton Anthology of English Literature, Vol. New York: W.W. Norton, 2005. Chave Serial Driverdoc Reviews. • Jeffares, Alexander (1968). A Commentary on the Collected Poems of W.B.

Yeats (Stanford University Press). • Ford, Robert, W.B.Yeats: A Life (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), p.

69 • The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats, (London, Wordsworth Editions) 1994, page 16 • McGarry, James P (1976).

Place names in the writings of William Butler Yeats. London, UK: Macmillan. • Jeffares, A. Norman (1984).

A new commentary on the poems of W.B. Stanford,, CA USA: Stanford University Press. Women composers: The lost tradition found (2nd ed., pp. New York: The Feminist Press.

The LiederNet Archive. • Craggs, Stewart R. (28 January 2013). John Ireland: A Catalogue, Discography and Bibliography: A Source Book (2nd ed.). Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.

Goldie Saturnzreturn Rar. The LiederNet Archive. Retrieved November 23, 2014. The LiederNet Archive. Retrieved November 23, 2014. • Corigliano, John.. Retrieved 17 March 2016. External links [ ].