Lyr Req: Mary O'Meara (Poul Anderson)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary O'Meara (Poul Anderson)
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Dec 17 - 03:53 PM

I liked when I first read it in Analog

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary O'Meara (Poul Anderson)
From: Gorgeous Gary
Date: 08 Sep 12 - 11:08 AM

Kathy,

Indeed she is; she and Bob are both the Fan Guests of Honor at Chambanacon next month in Champlain, IL.

-- Gary

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary O'Meara (Poul Anderson)
From: GUEST,Kathy Miller
Date: 07 Sep 12 - 04:09 PM

just be glad you aren't listening to Frank Hayes' send up
"Mary O' Meara Polka"
Anne Passovoy was very much alive last time I checked (and telling funny convention stories)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary O'Meara (Poul Anderson)
From: GUEST,Alan Kellogg
Date: 17 Apr 09 - 03:17 AM

Poul wrote the lyrics for World Without Stars, setting it to an old Norwegian folk song. I know of one other person who wrote original music for it, but Anne Passovoy's music is what I learned it to.

Anne herself was a Chicago area fan who wrote a number of filks and original songs. Like Poul, she died some years ago from cancer.

BTW, thanks for the lyrics, I'd been looking for them myself.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary O'Meara (Poul Anderson)
From: GUEST,semi-submersible
Date: 13 Nov 08 - 04:35 AM

Shimrod:
I see what you mean. Still, if you change your mind someday you may find merit in some of Anderson's more mature writing. In Winter of the World, for instance, he builds a plausible Earthbound future so distant that none of the races or cultures show recognisable vestiges of their ancestors of today.

bgoldnyxnet:
I'll second that emotion. Nice summary.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary O'Meara (Poul Anderson)
From: GUEST,Shimrod
Date: 12 Nov 08 - 02:57 PM

I remember one of Anderson's novels where the heroine was a 'flame-haired' Irish beauty who spoke pure 'Blarney-stone Oirish' ("Ah to be sure, to be sure" etc., etc.). I remember flinging the book, and its execrable cliches, across the room and vowing never to read any more Anderson.

It's a pity because he was a favourite of mine during my teens and I really enjoyed some of his early stuff like 'The Broken Sword'. Unfortunately, from approximately mid-career onward he became a parody of himself and practically unreadable. Also, like many American SF writers, he became a right-wing libertarian with (for British readers, especially) a very high 'get-up-your-nose' quotient.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary O'Meara (Poul Anderson)
From: MartinRyan
Date: 12 Nov 08 - 01:49 PM

Yeah - I wondered why his name sounded vaguely familiar.

Regards

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary O'Meara (Poul Anderson)
From: bgoldnyxnet
Date: 12 Nov 08 - 01:33 PM

Yes, Mary O'Meara is by Poul Anderson who wrote fiction from the 1950s into the 1990s. I found the novel _World without Stars_ to be less than his best, but a lot better than "sentimental clap-trap". Obviously, tastes differ.

The depth of the novel is not conveyed by the song, unfortunately. The singer is a crewman on a starship marooned on a planet after the drive fails. Some crewmen would just give up and take up living among the natives. But the singer has a need to get back to his girlfriend, and he persuades the rest to do the work needed to get the ship repaired (including helping the natives against raiding enemies). It takes over 40 years, but they are immortal.

At the end the ship's Captain follows the singer to find out what could inspire such loyalty. And finds him singing the last two verses to a grave on a green hilltop. Mary died of natural causes just five years before the immortality treatment was developed. The singer roams all over the stars, but always comes home to say hello to his (dead) GF and tell her what he's been doing.

Sentimental claptrap if you like, but I'm tearing up just writing about it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary O'Meara - Poul Anderson
From: MMario
Date: 19 Dec 02 - 08:19 AM

yup. In addition to the SF he also filked a number of songs and was involved in the beginnings of the Society for Creative Anachronism.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary O'Meara - Poul Anderson
From: Mark Cohen
Date: 19 Dec 02 - 01:26 AM

Since you mentioned "Analog", I assume that's the same Poul Anderson (Andersen?) whose science fiction I remember reading as a youngster in the 60s. Can't remember anything he wrote, though. Sigh...ginkgo deficiency strikes again.

Aloha,
Mark

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary O'Meara - Poul Anderson
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 18 Dec 02 - 11:24 PM

Funny, I liked it when I read it. Maybe I have a higher claptrap quotient than you do. Bear in mind that the song was central to the story and provided a major part of the main character's motivation.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary O'Meara - Poul Anderson
From: mg
Date: 18 Dec 02 - 12:37 AM

gee.I thought it was pretty. mg

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mary O'Meara - Poul Anderson
From: GUEST,Mc Dougal
Date: 18 Dec 02 - 12:19 AM

I won't say anything about the poem, it's here for anyone
      to judge, but the story, in 'Analog' I think, was one of the
      most sickening pieces of sentimental clap-trap that I've
      ever read.
                   J. McD

Subject: Lyr Add: MARY O'MEARA (P Anderson, A Passovoy)
From: MMario
Date: 17 Dec 02 - 07:12 PM

MARY O'MEARA
(words: Poul Anderson, music: Anne Passovoy)

Mary O'Meara, the stars and the dewfall
Have covered your hilltop with light.
The wind in the lilies that blossom around you
Goes bearing your name from the height;
My girl, you are all of the night.

A ship out of shadow bears homeward by starlight,
By stars, and the loom of your hill;
A hand at a brow is uplifted in peering,
Saluting and shaking with chill;
My girl, are you waiting there still?

I'll sing you a song about Mary O'Meara,
With stars like a crown in her hair,
Sing of her memory ranging before me
Wherever the way that I fare,
My joy is to know she is there.

The song shall ride home on the surf of the starlight,
And leap to the shores of the sky,
Take wing on the wind, and the odor of lilies,
And Mary O'Meara-ward fly,
And whisper your name where you lie.

So softly you hear it now, Mary O'Meara,
But soon it rings joyful and clear,
And soon, in the shadow and dew of your hilltop,
A star-guided footfall rings near,
My only beloved, I'm here.

Sleep soft once again if you wake in your darkness,
Sleep knowing you are my delight.
As long as the stars wheel the years down the heavens,
As long as the lilies bloom white,
My darling, I kiss you goodnight.

Subject: Lyr Req: Mary O'Meara - Poul Anderson
From: GUEST,Tyghress
Date: 17 Dec 02 - 06:42 PM

Anyone able to provide me with the poem that was put to music?

Many thanks!