Lyr Add: Oh, When I Breath'd a Last Adieu

Subject: Lyr Add: OH! WHEN I BREATH'D A LAST ADIEU
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 30 Oct 24 - 01:42 PM

From

The Irish Musical Repository: A Choice Selection of Esteemed Irish Songs,... (London: B. Crosby & Co., 1808), page 164.

which can be seen at Google Books and the The Hathi Trust.

This book contains musical notation, plus the note: “Air—Within this village dwells a maid.”


OH! WHEN I BREATH'D A LAST ADIEU.

Oh, when I breath'd a last adieu
To Erin's vales and mountains blue;
Where nurs'd by hope my moments flew,
In life's unclouded spring;
Tho' on the breezy deck reclin'd,
I listen'd to the rising wind,
What fetters could restrain the mind,
That rov'd on Fancy's wing?

She bore me to the woodbine bow'r,
Where oft I pass'd the twilight hour,
Where first I felt Love's thrilling pow'r,
From Kathleen's beaming eye;
Again I watch'd her flushing breast;
Her honey'd lip again was prest,
Again, by sweet confessions blest,
I drank each melting sigh.

Dost thou, Kathleen, my loss deplore,
And lone on Erin's em’rald shore,
In memory trace the love I bore,
On all our transports dwell?
Can I forget the fatal day
That call'd me from thy arms away,
When nought was left me but to say:
“Farewell, my love,—farewell!”

Also found in:
The Lady’s Weekly Miscellany, Vol 8, No 4, 1808, page 62.
Crosby’s Irish Musical Repository, 1810, page 165.
The Apollo, or, Harmonic Miscellany, 1814, page 35.
The Pocket Encyclopedia of Scottish, English and Irish Songs, 1816, page 160.
The Hibernian Cabinet, 1817, page 18.
The Vocal Library, 1822, page 70.
The Vocal Gleaner and Universal Melodist, 1827, page 192.
The Harp of Old Ireland, 1830, page 37
The London Songster, 1830, page 102.
The Shamrock, 1830, page 12.
The Souvenir Minstrel, 1833, page 235.
The Gleaner, 1834, page 17.
The Northern and Eastern Songster, 1835, page 112.
The Universal Song-book and Museum of Mirth, 1835, page 112.
Howe’s Comic and Sentimental Irish Songster, 1850, page 56.
Gems from the Operas, 1851, page 235.
Marsh’s Selection, 1854, page 535.
One Hundred Songs of Ireland, 1859, page 57.
War Songs of the Blue and the Gray, 1905, page 113.

After this song was folk-processed, it was also known as Adieu to Erin (The Emigrant), and under that name, it is listed at The Traditional Ballad Index.

A folk version was included in Songs the Whalemen Sang, by Gale Huntington, 1970, page 256. I do not have the text of this book, but the Ballad Index says the lover's name was Mary (not Kathleen, as in the original).

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Oh, When I Breath'd a Last Adieu
From: cnd
Date: 30 Oct 24 - 03:33 PM

Jim, no help at the moment since Internet Archive is not allowing log-ins (for security purposes, I suppose, following the recent hacking attempt), but the 1966 edition of Huntington's book is available for rent (with log-in) on Archive.org

https://archive.org/details/songswhalemensan00hunt

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Oh, When I Breath'd a Last Adieu
From: cnd
Date: 04 Nov 24 - 04:14 PM

I was finally able to access the version from Huntington's Song's the Whalemen Sang (1964), pp. 255-256 (link). The lyrics are nearly identical to those produced above already, though minus some of the contractions (for scansion/dialect, it appears).   There's also some sheet music for anyone interested in making an ABC or reading the dots.

Huntington's version comes from the Cortes, which was described as follows --
Name of vessel: Ship Cortes
Home port at time of voyage: New Bedford [Massachusets]
Year in which voyage began: 1847
Repository in which journal or logbook may be found: (A manuscript book of songs collected by William Histed.)

The book also includes the brief description: "Perhaps the more common name for this song is "The Emigrant." I haven't been able to find out very much about it. Although the words seem literary it is sometimes hard to tell with Irish songs. The melody is almost surely traditional, and it has a sweet haunting quality."