Lyr Add: Eily Dear (Danny Boy/Londonderry Air)

Subject: Lyr Add: Eily Dear (Danny Boy/Londonderry Air)
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 18 Sep 06 - 10:01 AM

I've posted these lyrics in an earlier thread, but they do not appear to have been 'harvested' so I thought I'd give this version of the song its own thread.
This also means that a thread title search will also find it.


EILY DEAR
words Fred E Weatherly, written to an old Irish air



Oh, Eily dear, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer's gone, and all the roses falling
It's I, it's I must go, and you must bide.
But I'll come back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow
And you'll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Eily dear, oh Eily dear, I love you so.

Someday, may be, when all the flow'rs are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
Ye'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an Ave there for me.
And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me
And all my grave will warmer, sweeter, be
For you will bend and tell me that you love me
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me.

Copyright 1913 by Boosey & Co
New Edition Copyright 1918 by Boosey & Co
NP

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Eily Dear (Danny Boy/Londonderry Air)
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 18 Sep 06 - 12:28 PM

The sheet music (from 1918) gives the direction that these are the lyrics to be used when the song is sung by a man. These lyrics are printed with the music, with the variations italicised.

It is interesting to note that there is a separate lyrics page (although printed on the reverse of the first page of music)which gives a slightly different version:

Oh, Eily dear, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountain side
The summer's gone, and all the roses falling
It's I, it's I must go, and you must bide.
But I'll come back when summer's in the meadow
Or when the valley's hushed and white with snow
And you'll be here in sunshine or in shadow
Oh Eily dear, I love you, love you so.

Someday, someday, when all the flow'rs are dying
And I am dead, as dead I well may be
Ye'll come and find the place where I am lying
And kneel and say an Ave there for me.
And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me
And all my grave will warmer, sweeter, be
For you will bend and tell me that you love me
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me.

The only variations are shown in italics above, but even the Danny Boy version (on this lyrics only sheet) shows the first verse ending "Oh Danny Boy, I love you, love you so"
Which is a variation on the usual.

Other web sites discussing this song make the point that the alternate version does not appear in the version available there, published 1913 At Scriptorium.
I notice that that copy, as standard at the time, bears a facsimile signature for Boosey & Co in the bottom right corner, whereas my English copy has a facsimile of Fred Weatherly's signature. So presumably the additional words are an authorized version.

Nigel

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Eily Dear (Danny Boy/Londonderry Air)
From: Snuffy
Date: 18 Sep 06 - 07:16 PM

Another set of words (apparently by a Terry o' Sullivan) are here Lyr Add: Acushla Mine