Lyr Req: Trees (Walter de la Mare)

Subject: Trees of England lyrics
From: ddw in windsor
Date: 16 Mar 99 - 01:02 AM

Hi 1catters....

My expatriate English wife sorta half remembers a song from her school days, but has forgotten most of the lyrics. I assured her that some Mudcatter is SURE to know it, so please don't let me down. What she rememers is this:

Trees of England (or Trees IN England, she isn't sure.

The first verse is:

Of all the trees in England Her sweet three corners in Only the ash, the bonny ash Burns fierce while it is green.

She thinks the last verse is:

Of all the trees in England, Oak, elder, elm and thorn, The yew alone burns lamps of peace For them that lie forlorn.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give. This is important; she's one of the best shower singers I know, but won't perform. She's promised that if I can find the words to this song he might consider doing it at our folk club.

cheers all ddw

Subject: RE: Trees of England lyrics
From: ddw in windsor
Date: 16 Mar 99 - 01:07 AM

P.S. to the last posting....

I tried the DT, but only came up with Oak, Ash and Thorn. I took her a copy of that, but she said that's not it.

Also, being pretty new to this, can somebody tell me why this thing ignores return commands. Is it just that I have to hit it twice to get one?

thanx....

ddw

Subject: RE: Trees of England lyrics
From: AndyG
Date: 16 Mar 99 - 12:21 PM

Whilst I'm confident it's not the song you're looking for, LOGS TO BURN seems to fit the theme of the lines quoted above.

AndyG

Subject: RE: Trees of England lyrics
From: Ferrara
Date: 16 Mar 99 - 10:00 PM

It ignores return commands because of a peculiarity in HTML. A double return gives you a space between the lines you're trying to separate, but at least you get the line-by-line formatting. To put returns where you want them in a song, you need to put in HTML line breaks. BUT, I have to use a roundabout method to show you how to do it. You have to type *br#, where you substitute a "less than" or left angle bracket for the *, and a "greater than" or right angle bracket for the #. If I put the brackets in here, it will do weird HTML-like things.

There is a thread on HTML conventions for Mudcatters in the forum archives. Do a Forum search for "HTML Stuff" in the Subject box. (Don't use the quotes!)

Subject: Lyr Add: Trees
From: Joan from Wigan
Date: 07 Jan 03 - 12:26 PM

I was searching through some old threads, and noticed this request hadn't been answered. It may not be needed now, but here it is for completeness' sake:

TREES
(Walter De La Mare)

Of all the trees in England,
Her sweet three corners in,
Only the Ash, the bonnie Ash
Burns fierce while it is green.

Of all the trees in England,
From sea to sea again,
The Willow loveliest stoops her boughs
Beneath the driving rain.

Of all the trees in England,
Past frankincense and myrrh,
There's none for smell, of bloom and smoke,
Like Lime and Juniper.

Of all the trees in England,
Oak, Elder, Elm and Thorn,
The Yew alone burns lamps of peace
For them that lie forlorn.

Subject: RE: Trees of England lyrics
From: gnomad
Date: 07 Jan 03 - 03:37 PM

Thanks for that one Joan. I had completely forgotten about this song, which I learned at school (way back in the dark ages).

Funny but without the author's name I would hve guessed it was a much older work, do we know if he "borrowed" an older tune, or indeed who gave it the tune?

Subject: RE: Trees of England lyrics
From: MMario
Date: 07 Jan 03 - 03:46 PM

or what the tune is?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Trees of England
From: Joan from Wigan
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 03:35 AM

I've only come across it as a poem, and I can find no reference to a tune for it anywhere on the web. The words would fit any number of traditional tunes, but it would be interesting to know if there's a standard setting for it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Trees of England
From: MMario
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 11:00 AM

gnomad? ddw?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Trees of England
From: gnomad
Date: 08 Jan 03 - 02:48 PM

I can still remember a tune, but am unsure how to communicate it, being without formal musical knowledge (and pretty limited IT knowledge/experience).

Suggestions welcome, the lower tech the better!

One possibility (though a remote one) is that many of the songs I learned at the time were from one series or another of a BBC schools programme called Singing Together, if any Catters have any of the old books issued in connection with this programme the tune just MIGHT be there. We are talking of the 1960's.