Been reading various postings recently, and also am a bit troubled by what often 'passes' for scholarship or accuracy. Being interested in this song of Yeats, I looked up the title for some links I may have missed, and was disturbed to find various previously published statements tossed off in an offhand way as if to say, 'Here it is, Dummy, can't you read?' when in fact, even your own Digitrad Lyrics are not Yeats' poem, but some variant that has developed. I am deeply and completely committed to this poem, and to its 'Song', and have done some research into it that I would share if anyone thinks it a worthy topic, as well as an attempt at a complete discography of recordings of this song, either to the commonly adopted melody, or to new settings.

First of all, the 'correct' text of the poem is available to anyone near a library, or who has Yeats' Poems on a bookshelf nearby. It shouldn't be that hard to verify lyrics before you print them.

As to the melody, just because Judy Collins says it's traditional in her songbook, should you accept that as fact? In all of the Irish airs printed in all the songbooks have you come across this 'traditional' tune? It is called what, exactly? What I have learned, first, by discussing it with Richie Havens (who has one of the great recordings of it on his 'Mixed Bag' release), and also by much reading and research is this:

Richie says he learned it from Dave van Ronk. Dave, on his live recording seems mystified by Judy Collins' copyright on the song (who he does credit on the recording), because as he says, he learned the song from Will Holt. Judy Collins herself says (in one of her autobiographies & in her songbook) that she learned the song from Will Holt, and also that somewhere she might have a tape of his that she learned it from. I am interested in this tape, because I believe that the droning, strumming accompaniment used by Richie and Dave VR was Will Holt's original contribution to the song (sort of). Judy's fingerpicking background music in her recording (SHE called it 'Golden Apples of the Sun', I believe so that it could be copyrighted that way) has never satisfied me, nor does she give the lyrics any real emotional reading, as far as I'm concerned, but that's a matter of taste, and others may disagree. Anyway, I was hoping to get in touch with Dave van Ronk when his health improved, to ask him about Will Holt's version (that someone else out there must have heard him perform somewhere, also?) but sadly, that chance is gone. I BELIEVE that Will might have himself learned it from John Jacob Niles or Richard Dyer-Bennett, neither of whom recorded it, but both of whom used that strumming style to accompany many of their songs, and one of whom, I can't remember which, is said to have been an influence on and teacher of Will's. That is not to say it could not have been Will's own invention, but it is not characteristic of his other recordings. The earliest recording I have found, is, as others have mentioned, Burl Ives' a capella version, on his 1952(?) or so release 'Burl Ives Sings Irish Songs' (I think that is the title, but I don't have my notes in front of me). On the sleeve notes to that recording he says he learned the song from the Irish actress Sara Allgood, who was an early Abbey Theater performer and would have learned it from Yeats himself, I think, though the evidence I have yet to find. The thing is, though it is possible that Will Holt, or Dyer-Bennett or Niles heard this recording of Ives, they may just have easily found the song in Yeats' own writing, as all three were interested in the 'Art Song' as well as the Folk Song, it would not surprise me. And some antipathy may have existed between at least Dyer-Bennett and Ives, from Ives HUAC testimony.

In 1961 was first printed the Macmillan edition of 'Essays & Introductions' of Yeats. This is about the exact time Will Holt began performing the song, and on p. 26 of that book, in Yeats' essay 'Speaking to the Psaltery', originally published in 1907, there is the musical notation to Yeats' own melody, transcribed on a C-clef by Arnold Dolmetsch and given here in some kind of tab by myself:

 c   c   c   c  c   d d   b
  I went out to the hazel wood,
  b    a  a   c   c   b  b  d
  Because a fire was in my head,
  d    c   c   c     c  d d    b
  And cut and peeled a hazel wand,
  b    a     a  c c   b b    d
  And hooked a berry to a thread;
  d    d    d     d     d    d  d   d 
  And when white moths were on the wing,
  d     d    d    d     d   d     d    d
  And moth-like stars were flickering out,
  c     d    d   b b   a a    c 
  I dropped the berry in a stream,
  c     d    d  b  b   a  a    c
  and caught a little silver trout.

So, Yeats is both author of lyrics and composer of melody.

And Will Holt may have used Yeats' notation, or learned it from someone else who had, or from Ives' recording from the lips of Sara Allgood. But, Judy Collins nor anyone else, NOR YEATS himself, as he discusses in his essay, did set it to a traditional melody.

The complete discography may follow, if there is an interest. (And I share someone's, can't remember the person's name who posted it, love of Donovan's version, & have things to say about that, as well, about Donovan's shared poetic sensibilities with Yeats, and how the poem itself almost determines the melody, etc, but that is conjectural).

Bill Kennedy