Folk Song for March 2027: Down By the Salley Gardens

"Down By the Salley Gardens" is a poem by William Butler Yeats set to music. In an earlier post about this song, Wendi Capehart wrote:

"Yeats published this in 1889 in his The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems. He said [it was] 'an attempt to reconstruct an old song from three lines imperfectly remembered by an old peasant woman in the village of Ballisodare, Sligo, who often sings them to herself.'"

The title is sometimes misspelled Sally Gardens. It refers to a romantic meeting place where willow trees (called "sallies" or "sallow," derived from the Irish word saileach) grew.

Lyrics

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.

Video Links

Maura O'Connell with Karen Matheson (Female vocalists accompanied by traditional instruments)

Peter Hollens Male vocalist. (The last minute or so is a message from the artist)

John McCormack, a famous Irish tenor. Recorded in 1941.

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