Lyr Add: Isle of Beauty, Fare thee Well

Subject: Lyr Add: ISLE OF BEAUTY, FARE THEE WELL
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Oct 06 - 10:18 PM

Lyr. Add: ISLE OF BEAUTY, FARE THEE WELL
Thomas H. Bayly, Music arr. T. A. Rawlings

Shades of Evening, close not o'er us,
Leave our lonely bark awhile!
Morn, alas! will not restore us,
Yonder dim and distant isle.
Still my fancy can discover
Sunny spots where friends may dwell;
Darker shadows round us hover,
Isle of beauty, Fare-thee-well!

'Tis the hour when happy faces
Smile around the taper's light;
Who will fill our vacant places?
Who will sing our songs tonight!
Thro' the mist that floats above us,
Faintly sounds the Vesper bell,...
Like a voice from those who love us,
Breathing fondly ... "Fare-the-well!"

When the waves are round me breaking,
As I pace the deck alone,
And my eye in vain is seeking
Some green leaf to rest upon;
What would I not give to wander,
Where my old companions dwell...
Absence makes the heart grow fonder;
Isle of Beauty, "Fare-thee-well!"

Sheet music, Joseph Williams, London, nd (Printed between 1823-1834). The poem and music also appear in "The Odeon," a Collection of Secular Melodies, printed in U. S. A., Boston, 1837).

Lyrics taken from Sheet music Collection, Digital Collections, National Library of Australia, 7pp.
Home- www.nla.gov.au/digicol/
Title page- http://nla.gov.au/nla.mus-vn3362555-sl-v.jpg

Thomas Haynes Bayly, 1797-1839; Thomas A. Rawlings b. 1775. Rawlings' arrangement is bases on a melody by Charles Chapland Whitmore.

The title and last verse of the song come from John Milton-

"When the waves are round me breaking,
As I pace the deck alone,
And my eye in vain is seeking
Some green leaf to rest upon;
What would I give to wander
Where my old companions dwell?
Absence makes the heart grow fonder,
Isle of Beauty, fare thee well!"

This song often is cited as the origin of the phrase, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder." The song was popular during the American Civil War, when song sheets were printed by H. De Masran, New York, and others.
@sea @absence

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Isle of Beauty, Fare thee Well
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Oct 06 - 10:48 PM

Some trivia-
Popularity of the song continued into the 20th c.
The National Library of Australia has a second copy digitised, printed in 1888 for the Melbourne Exhibition.
The song is mentioned as one sung by Henry Burstow (South Riding Folk Network: Miscellany).
John McCormack sang it in 1933 on the CBS Radio program, "The Inside Story."
The Indiana State Library has sheet music.
The song is quoted in the Dicken papers, Kanewha area, 1861.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Isle of Beauty, Fare thee Well
From: JennieG
Date: 12 Oct 06 - 01:29 AM

Mudcatter Joybell has recorded this song, and a lovely version it is too.

Out of interest - in the early 19th century, while living in New South Wales, young woman named Annabella Boswell kept a diary which was finally published in 1965. The entry for 15th February 1848 quotes lines from this song: "Who will fill their vacant places, who will sing their songs tonight?" Two young men had been staying with Annabella's family and she wrote this in her diary the day they left. At the time she was living at Lake Innes just south of Port Macquarie, several hours north of Sydney.

So the song was known in colonial Australia - in New South Wales at least!

Cheers
JennieG

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Isle of Beauty, Fare thee Well
From: Snuffy
Date: 12 Oct 06 - 08:54 AM

Lots of websites ascribe the title and last verse to Milton (many say it is from Paradise Lost).

But - and it is a BIG BUT

I have searched all the Milton texts on Project Gutenberg, but failed to find this passage. It does not appear to be in any of the following works: L'Allegro, Il Penseroso, Comus, Lycidas, Areopagitica, A speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing to the Parliament of England, Paradise Lost (2 versions), Paradise Regained, Poemata : Latin, Greek and Italian Poems by John Milton, and Poetical Works.

My guess is that this is an inernet myth repeated uncritically by website after website. I reckon the whole song is down to Bayly.

And JennieG is right: Joybell's recording is a delight.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Isle of Beauty, Fare thee Well
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Oct 06 - 03:46 PM

Thanks, Snuffy. The Milton quote is from a University of Arizona site, but no verification or source. Checking the homepage of the site, it is evident that the site is not an official Univ. Arizona webpage, but one maintained by a student or staff member.
www.u. arizona.edu/~shelton1/quotes6.html

The quote goes back before either Milton or Bayly- "Bartlett's Familiar Quotations," John Bartlett, 1855, Fourteenth Ed., 1968.

"Absence makes the heart grow fonder" : Sextus Aurelius Propertius, 54 BC-AD2, Elegies I, xxxiii, 43. Bartlett's, pp. 127-128

The second quote is "Absence makes the heart grow fonder: Isle of Beauty, fare thee well!" "Isle of Beauty," Thomas Haynes Bayly. Bartlett's, pp. 587-588.

No mention of Milton; his connection with the phrase seems to be myth, as you say.