Nine comments
My Love Is An Arbutus (SLOW AIR)
This tune is not a waltz, but a slow air
Source: Buttons & Bows - jackie daly, seamus & manus mcguire
Transcription. gmp
Just curious. What is an "Arbutus"? I only ask because in Maryland, it is a name of a town not too far from where I live. I’ve never heard the word in any other context.
My Love
An arbutus is a bush or small tree with blossom and fruit.
The song "My Love
My Love Is An Arbutus - words of the song
My love’s an arbutus
By the borders of Lene,
So slender and shapely
In her girdle of green.
And I measure the pleasure
Of her eye’s sapphire sheen
By the blue skies that sparkle
Through the soft branching screen.
But though ruddy the berry
And snowy the flower
That brighten together
The arbutus bower,
Perfuming and blooming
Through sunshine and shower,
Give me her bright lips
And her laugh’s pearly dower.
Alas, fruit and blossom
Shall lie dead on the lea,
And Time’s jealous fingers
Dim your young charms, Machree.
But unranging, unchanging,
You’ll still cling to me,
Like the evergreen leaf
To the arbutus tree …
Thanks for the clarification. Don’t know why, but before I knew what an Arbutus was, I was almost thinking the song was a bit farcical. For some reason I was thinking "brute", kinda sounds a little like "arbutus". Ah nevermind 🙂. Definitely makes more sense now.
Old Irish Melody
Collected by John Ward, (Chicago) words are attributed to Alfred Perceval Graves. My copy has words for only two verses. And the music is noted in F.
Hey, Pants, is "Machree" an actual lyric, or should it be "mo chroi"? (Gaelic for "my heart")
I have no idea, sorry