She emerged from the lush greens on our Saturday stroll in the Rotary Gardens.
On Tuesday, Yeats appeared on my daily feed from The Writer’s Almanac . . .
Down By the Salley Gardens
by William Butler Yeats
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.
Then Maura O’Connell showed up today.
A lovely way to start my day, thank you Penny! I wonder if this was one of Yeats’ poems inspired by Maude Gonne.:) Maura O’Connell does a lovely rendition.
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You are welcome, Janet. I don’t know if it was Maude Gonne inspired, but, certainly could have been. I wish Maura O’Connell would do a concert here. We saw her at a small concert in Hammerschmidt Chapel about 15 years ago and still talk about it.
Looks like a very nice weather day! 🙂
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I was thinking the same thing as bloggingfromthebog. That was completely lovely. I’m glad you posted the words. It was nice to follow along as the video played. And the photo is perfect.
I based a character in one of my books on a Yeats poem–The Wanderings of Oisin. 🙂
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Well, L. Maire, I went off wandering on the internet to find The Wanderings of Oisin and see some of your books and never came back to answer. Thank you for sending me on that journey – and thank you for the compliment.
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Simply perfect statue to accompany the poem. They were meant to go together.
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I thought so as well, Marilyn. Thank you. 🙂
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Hauntingly beautiful, Penny! I wasn’t familiar with this Yeats poem. Thank you so much for sharing the poignant words and lovely music today. What a perfect accompaniment to your wonderful day in the gardens! Hope you are able to take life easy today… ♡
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Thank you, Dawn. It all came together as they things sometimes do.
Busy today and ready to “crash”. Found a monarch caterpillar on my milkweed. Joy supreme. 🙂
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[…] I don’t expect everyone to share my delight. But I’m sure something delights you. If so, what? While you think about that, I hope this post by Penny O’Neill over at the Life on the Cutoff blog delights you as it delighted me: https://lifeonthecutoff.wordpress.com/2015/07/01/an-occurrence/ […]
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Penny, you have such a way of bringing together image plus text plus music. This was a magical combination. I’m a great lover of the poetry of Yeats, and this one is very poignant, especially when sung so beautifully. Thank you for bringing great delight to my evening.
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You are very welcome, Juliet. I’m pleased to know it brought you such delight. These elements just seemed to flow together – and appear for me one by one. Thank you, Juliet.
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I sang the poem/song to Mira when she had her sleepover. It’s a little sad, but full of the poignancy of life. And I’ve played the video over and over: so magical it is.
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I love the beautiful garden statue and I really enjoyed the poem, BUT, the music is just incredibly powerful and it left me wanting more! This was simply perfect, Penny!
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Thank you, Debra.
If you haven’t heard Maura O’Connell, you might want to check out some of her music. We had the unexpected pleasure of hearing her in a very small venue some years ago and still talk about her. This is one of her best.
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Somehow I missed this post. It’s beautiful Penny. Thank you!
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I’m thrilled that you found it now, Gerlinde. I’d forgotten about this one, so, you gave me an excuse to come back and listen to Maura O’Connell. You are most welcome.
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