Down By The Sally Gardens

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
But I being young and foolish
With her did 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 I am full of tears

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 trees
But I being young and foolish
With her would not agree


Down By The Sally Gardens / Air traditional arrangement by Peter Eades, Órlagh Fallon
Words by W.B. Yeats
The words of this song were written by Yeats and Herbert Hughes set them to the music of an old traditional air called “The Maids of Mourne Shore”. The poem itself is from “Crossways”, a set of poems written by Yeats before he was 21 in about 1889. A Sally is a willow tree and most towns and villages had sally gardens to provide rods for use in thatching. The Sally Gardens outside of Sligo, the subject of this poem, have long since disappeared giving way to a housing estate.


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