Down by the Salley Gardens
Poem by W. B. YeatsTraditional airPublic domain
Not a lullaby but a quiet Irish song about patience, rivers and willow trees. It is slow and gentle, so it suits calm evenings and is lovely played softly on guitar or piano. Here you will find the words, what they mean and the story of the poem.
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Verse 1
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.
(They met down by the willow gardens. She walked past on her small, snow-white feet and told him to take love easy, the way leaves grow on a tree. But he was young and foolish and would not listen.)
Verse 2
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.
(They stood in a field by the river, and she laid her hand on his shoulder. She told him to take life easy, the way grass grows on the river banks. But he was young and foolish, and now he is full of tears.)
Good to know
What this song means
A "salley" is a willow tree, so the salley gardens are willow plantations by a river. The two verses give the same advice twice, in two pictures from nature: take love and life as easily as leaves grow on a tree and grass grows by the water. The singer did not listen when he was young, and looks back with regret. It is a wistful song, not a sad story, and it has no violence in it.
The English lines under each verse are our own paraphrase for understanding. The poem is in English, with the spelling "salley" used by Yeats.
History
Where this song comes from
The words are a poem by the Irish writer W. B. Yeats, first printed in 1889 under the title "An Old Song Re-Sung". Yeats said he had tried to rebuild an old song from three lines half remembered by an old woman in the village of Ballisodare, in County Sligo, who used to sing them to herself.
In 1909 the musician Herbert Hughes set the poem to an old traditional tune, "The Maids of Mourne Shore", and this pairing became one of the best known Irish songs. It has been recorded by many singers over the years. The version on this page uses only the poem, which is in the public domain, and the old traditional tune.
Sources & rights
- Words: a poem by William Butler Yeats (1865 to 1939), first published in 1889. Public domain.
- Tune: "The Maids of Mourne Shore", a traditional Irish air, no known composer. Public domain.
- We do not copy any later arrangement or setting of the song.
- Meaning: our own paraphrase, written for understanding.
- Video: a selection from our own handplayed videos. This song does not have a dedicated recording by us yet.
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