Hi all

Have come across these lyrics in a number of places online including The Bodelian Library

I found a midi here

I am interested in the history of the song and to know if anybody has a recording of the song, or knows where I might get/hear a recording.

Here is a transcript

The Wish/The Poor Timid Hare

When the trees are all bare, not a leaf to be seen
And the meadows their beauty have lost
When Nature disrobed of her mantle green.
And the streams are fast bound with the frost.
Whilst the peasant inactive stands shivering with cold,
As bleak the winds northerly blow,
And the innocent flock runs for ease to the fold,
With their fleeces all covered with snow.

In the yard when the cattle are foddered with straw,
And they send forth their breath like a steam.
And the neat looking dairymaid finds she must thaw
Flakes of ice that she sees in her cream
With the sweet country maiden as fresh as a rose,
As she carelessly slips, often slides,
And the rustic loud laughs, if by falling she shows
All the charms that her modesty hides.

When the birds to the barn door come hovering for food
As in silence they rest on the spray.
And the poor timid hare in vain seeks the woods,
Lest her footsteps her course should betray.
When the lads and the lasses in company joined,
In a crowd round the embers are met.
Talk of fairies and witches that ride in the wind.
And of ghosts till they are in a sweat.

Heaven grant in this season it may be my lot,
With the nymph whom I love and admire
While the icicles hang from the eves of my cot
I may thither in safety retire,
Where in neatness and quiet, and free from surprise
We may live and no hardships endure,
Nor feel any turbulent passions arise
But such as each other can cure.

Fergus