It was down by the Sally Gardens my love and I did meet,
She passed the Sally Gardens with little snow-white feet;
She bid me take love easy as the leaves grow on the tree,
And I being young and foolish and with her did not agree.
In a field down by the river my love and I did stand,
And on my leaning shoulder she placed her snow-white hand;
She bid me take life easy as the grass grows on the weirs,
I being young and foolish and now I am full of tears.
Down by the Sally Gardens my love and I did meet,
She passed the Sally Gardens with her little snow-white feet;
She bid me take love easy as the grass grows and the leaves on the tree,
Now, I was young and foolish and with her did not agree.
Down by the Sally Gardens my love and I did meet.
####.... Lyrics: William Butler Yeats, 1889 ....####
Recorded by Harrington Brothers (Rare Old Times, trk#5, 1996 CD, recorded at S.T.S. Studios [now Claddagh Records], Dublin, Ireland, CBC, St. John's NL and Piper Stock Productions, Torbay, NL, and distributed by Duckworth Distribution).
The YouTube video above features a variant from a live performance by Harrington Brothers and Middle Tickle at The Holy Heart Theatre, St. John's Newfoundland on March 12, 2011.
From Wikipedia: Down By The Salley Gardens - well-known poem by William Butler Yeats, from his book, The Wanderings of Oisin and Other Poems (1889). Yeats wrote that it was "an attempt to reconstruct an old song from three lines imperfectly remembered by an old peasant woman in the village of Ballysodare, Sligo, who often sings them to herself." The original title was An Old Song Re-Sung, and it only appeared with its present title when it was reprinted in Poems (1895). It was set to music by Herbert Hughes to the tune The Maids Of The Mourne Shore in 1909. The Irish name is Gort na Saileán. "Salley" is an anglicisation of the Irish "saileach", meaning a type of willow tree.
