That "Heart of the Maritimes" is really pretty; Having toured up that way in times past, we know well that it certainly is a "Lovely land".

A few years ago I set Robert Lois Stevenson's poem "Requium" to music in memory of an old Friend (my Brother's Father in Law) who memorized many of his poems and those of Robert Service, among others, and could recite them verbatum while we were out in the woods hunting. It never ceased to amaze me how he could do that.

But "Requium" seemed to be his favorite, so I composed a 6/8 score for it and played/sang it at his Memorial Service. I also recorded it on my CD album "Home From the Hill" (Titled from a line of "Requium"), which you needn't look for in any Music Stores any time soon!

It uses a pretty straightforward 3-chord progression, and I fingerpick it.

I have an Mp3 file of it if anyone is interested - I don't know how to share an *.Mp3 here, though, if it can be done at all. I might be able to wank it into a MIDI, I suppose.

Another trick the Old-Timers used to use a lot was the "Metrical Index"; an alpha - numerical "code" was assigned to a set of lyrics and to popular tunes, according to the number of sylables in the verse, or the meter of the music.

This practice has been discussed in detail here on a number of occasions, and those threads could be searched out.

That way, they could look up any set of lyrics and just "plug it in" to a compatable tune. A lot of the old Hymns were set up that way, and it wasn't until the later 1800s that many of the lyrics and scores of popular Hymns that we know today became more or less permanantly associated with each other.

So if you don't want to compose an original score for a particular verse, you could do a "metrical matchup" to any number of scores. It might be easier with some of the "oldies" of the early 19th Century which already have Metrical notation. Some Hymnals still list the meter with the title; check it out. It will look like "CM" (Common Meter), "LM" (Long Meter) "6s & 8s", "Doubled" etc.. And a lot of people don't have a clue what that cryptical notation is all about.

There are some really nice tunes in the archives, many of which have been essentially lost in the dust of obscurity for over a Century and are long overdue for exhumation and ressurection.

Elvis made a big Re-Hit in the 1960s with "Aura Lee" of Civil War vintage; only he called it "Love Me Tender", and wrote his own lyrics for it. Same tune, essentially.

I've been know to "tweak" some of the old tunes a bit, and come up with some pretty interesting variations. The mausoleum of music past can be a great resource to someone looking to put a poem to music.

HTH - UJ in ME