Band Project
By: Dustin Graf
Lyrics
It was down by the Salley Gardens, my love and I did meet. She crossed the Salley Gardens with little snow-white feet. She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree, But I was 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 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. Down by the Salley Gardens, my love and I did meet. She crossed the Salley Gardens with little snow-white feet. She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree, But I was young and foolish, and with her did not agree.
The Salley Gardens location
This is a picture of the "Salley Gardens."
History
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.