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Lyr/Chords Req: So We'll Go No More A-Roving

17 Aug 00 - 03:17 AM (#279408)
Subject: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
From: Bugsy

Can anyone help me with the chords to this beautiful song.

Cheers

Bugsy


17 Aug 00 - 03:49 AM (#279417)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
From: Joe Offer

That's a tough one to seaarch for, because "A-Rovin" can be spelled so many ways. I put [go no more] in square brackets in the DigiTrad search box so it would find an exact phrase - and it came right up. If you feel lazy, Click here
-Joe Offer-


17 Aug 00 - 04:01 AM (#279426)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
From: Bugsy

Thanks Joe but it's none of those songs.

The one I'm looking for is :

So we'll go no more a-roving
So late into the night
Though the heart be still as loving
And the moon be still as bright.
For the sword outwears the sheath
And the heart ourwears the breast

etc.. etc...

Cheers

Bugsy


17 Aug 00 - 04:08 AM (#279430)
Subject: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
From: Joe Offer

Oh, OK, well there was a thread on it here (click), and it's Child #279, so a search for #279 brings up this (click). Is that at least a start for you, Bugsy?
-Joe Offer-


17 Aug 00 - 04:34 AM (#279435)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
From: Bugsy

Thanks for the assistance Joe, but none of these bears any resemblance to the tune I'm looking for the chords for.

Thanks anyway.

Cheers

bugsy


17 Aug 00 - 08:40 AM (#279498)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
From: Malcolm Douglas

If it's a setting of Byron's poem, as it seems to be, then you are going to have to give us a little more information as to which one you mean.  There is a list of 33 settings of it here: So we'll go no more a-roving,  for a start...

Malcolm


17 Aug 00 - 08:55 AM (#279511)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
From: GUEST,Letty

Maybe the song you're looking for is The Jolly Beggarman?

Love, Letty


17 Aug 00 - 09:07 AM (#279523)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
From: GUEST,Brian

I think Letty is right. I think it is called The Jolly Beggarman ( not the Jolly Beggar that is in DT. I have the song you are looking for on record. If you still have not traced it let me know and I'll search it out for you.


17 Aug 00 - 11:19 AM (#279601)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
From: Shanti

The song lyrics are a poem by Lord Byron. And the tune was written by John Jacob Niles. It's in his ballad book and I'll look it up for you when I get home tomorrow night. It's a gorgeous son, but short.


17 Aug 00 - 11:49 AM (#279615)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
From: Shanti

Have checked with Amazon...and the book is being re-published. If you don't mind a used copy, you can find a range of prices on the BALLAD BOOK OF JOHN JACOB NILES, from $14.00 to about 40.00, at Alibris. www.alibris.com

I've played the song myself, since I first heard it on a Joan Baez album in the early 60s. Was very happy to find it in a book, which incidentally also has the guitar chords.


17 Aug 00 - 03:21 PM (#279744)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
From: George Seto - af221@chebucto.ns.ca

Bugsy, I found this. Check out Lord Byron's poem in

http://alt.venus.co.uk/weed/music/roving.txt


17 Aug 00 - 04:03 PM (#279761)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
From: Joe Offer

Shanti - what title does Niles give to the song? I've got the book, but haven't found the song.
-Joe Offer-


17 Aug 00 - 10:47 PM (#279964)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
From: Anglo

Well, we can wait till Shanti gets home but I don't think it's in Niles' Ballad Book. Are you sure it's his setting, not Richard Dyer-Bennett's? The recording I remember is from an early Joan Baez record - and it certainly is the Byron poem. The Jolly Beggarman version that Planxty did has a similar refrain which is causing some confusion - it might well have been stolen from the poem, or vice versa, but that's just a guess. Can anyone check the Dyer-Bennett songbook to see if it's there?


18 Aug 00 - 12:42 AM (#280057)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
From: Bugsy

Letty, Brian and Anglo, It's definitely not the Jolly Beggerman. That's what seemed to think as well.

George Seto, that's exactly what I was looking for. Thank you very much. Thanks to Joe for, as always leaping into the frey and offering (no pun intended) full cooperation and help when needed. Thanks also to Shanti who was definitely on the right track, but pipped by George.

Now all I have to do is learn the bloody thing!

Cheers all,

Bugsy


18 Aug 00 - 08:36 AM (#280155)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
From: GUEST,Brian

Quite right, I stand corrected. I checked last night, only to find that it is the Byron poem, and not the Jolly Beggarman. I'm glad you now have all you need. Sorry for the confusion.


18 Aug 00 - 12:02 PM (#280251)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
From: Anglo

My apologies for muddying up the water. Skimming down too quickly to see what people were writing I didn't quite comprehend that George's link had ALL the information. Bien fait, George.


18 Aug 00 - 12:10 PM (#280257)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
From: Shanti

My fault for further muddying the water. It is the poem by Byron but the setting is definitey Richard Dyer-Bennett. That's what I get for trying to be a smart-ass. Apologies to all.


18 Aug 00 - 09:06 PM (#280533)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
From: Bugsy

No need to apologise for trying to help.

Thanks again to all.

Cheers

bugsy


18 Aug 00 - 09:14 PM (#280539)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
From: Joe Offer

Well, if you take a look at the link I provided in the fourth message (or click here), it IS "The Jolly Beggarman" - Byron stole it, fair and square. He extended the chorus and dropped the verses.
-Joe Offer-


02 Apr 24 - 06:36 AM (#4200280)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
From: GUEST,Rory

So We'll Go No More a Roving


Poem by Lord Byron (George Gordon, 1788–1824), written in 1817

Published in:
Letters and Journals of Lord Byron, ed. Thomas Moore, Vol 2, 1831, p. 56

The poem was included in a letter to his friend Thomas Moore on 28 February 1817 from Venice. Moore published the poem in 1830 as part of Letters and Journals of Lord Byron.

In the letter to Moore, the poem is preceded by an account of its genesis.
Byron explained that the Venetian high life had begun to weary him. He describes that he is not feeling very well and describes nights of celebration; he writes about the carnival season, and how he has stayed up the past several nights to enjoy himself and is now feeling the ill effects of it. He then explains that the Lenten season — the Christian tradition of preparing for the symbolic anniversary of the death of Jesus — has begun, and the nights have been replaced by “abstinence and sacred music.” Afterward, he describes feeling as though his sword is wearing out its scabbard, and laments that this is happening to him, even though he is only twenty-nine years old. He follows this with ‘So We’ll Go No More a Roving‘.

Byron letter to Moore 1817

At present, I am on the invalid regimen myself. The Carnival—that is, the latter part of it, and sitting up late o' nights—had knocked me up a little. But it is over—and it is now Lent, with all its abstinence and sacred music.
The mumming closed with a masked ball at the Fenice, where I went, as also to most of the ridottos, etc., etc.; and though I did not dissipate much upon the whole, yet I find 'the sword wearing out the scabbard,' though I have just turned the corner of twenty-nine.

So we'll go no more a roving
So late into the night,
Though the heart be still as loving,
And the moon be still as bright.
For the sword outwears its sheath,
And the soul wears out the breast,
And the heart must pause to breathe,
And love itself have rest.
Though the night was made for loving,
And the day returns too soon,
Yet we'll go no more a roving
By the light of the moon.


The poem may have been suggested in part by the refrain of a Scottish song known as "The Jolly Beggar".
"The Jolly Beggar" was published in David Herd's Ancient and Modern Scottish Songs in 1776 (Vol 2, p.26), decades before Byron's letter, with this refrain:

And we'll gang nae mair a roving
    Sae late into the night,
And we'll gang nae mair a roving, boys,
    Let the moon shine ne'er sae bright.
And we'll gang nae mair a roving.




This poem conveys a sense of resignation and acceptance of life's limitations. The speaker acknowledges that indulging in a hedonistic lifestyle of youthful exuberance and endless pursuit of pleasure must eventually come to an end.
The imagery of a sword outwearing its sheath, as well as the soul outwearing the breast, metaphorically depicts the wearing down of youth and passion over time. The poem suggests that, while the heart may still be capable of love, the physical and emotional toll of life eventually takes its toll, necessitating periods of rest and respite.


The poem was written as the poet approached his thirties, to mark the end of an era of wild, excessive partying and youth. The poem explains the reasons for leaving behind a period of excess and late night partying. The tiredness of age will replace the restless searching of youth.


By this point in his life, Lord Byron had been living in exile for nearly a year. He spent much of 1817 in Italy, particularly Venice and Rome, having left England following the breakdown of his marriage and to escape his debts and sexual scandals. -He had been living a dissolute lifestyle in Venice, a city known for sex-tourism at the time, and he was exhausted to the point of illness from his sexual activities, drinking and late nights when he wrote the poem . This, along with the contents of the letter, suggest that it is written more as a lament to his growing up than for any one person in particular. For someone who spends so much of his youth sleeping around, taking personal liberties, and enjoying the expressions of his own emotion, to discover at the age of twenty-nine that he was beginning to feel tired must have come as a surprise. This poem was meant for Moore as a way of expressing how he was feeling, perhaps in a way that he felt could not be conveyed as well through unadorned words. It seems likely that his intention was not for the poem to be published at all, and yet reading it still provides fascinating insight on the life and in the mind of Lord George Gordon Byron at the age of twenty-nine.


Detailed Analysis

‘So We’ll Go No More A-Roving‘ is nothing quite like the epics and long displays of emotion that made Byron so famous in his day, but there’s a lot of meaning within these three simple stanzas. ‘So We’ll Go No More a Roving‘ is designed to be easily read and to flow off the tongue — its ABAB format is one of the most pleasant to read and understand, and it uses metaphorical imagery often. Byron evokes images of the heart and the soul, as well as a sword and sheath. This is a clever choice on his part; by pairing the metaphorical images with the literal one, it is easier to understand his meaning without it being lost entirely in non-literal exclamations.


To “rove” is to wander aimlessly, a luxury commonly afforded to young people who do not have or need a particular direction in life just yet, and this makes sense in light of the rest of ‘So We’ll Go No More a Roving‘. The narrator is describing a situation in which they are no longer free to rove around, even though they feel that the nights are made for that particular purpose. Even today, it is common to see those who stay awake through all hours of the night to do the things that they want to do, rather than what they have to do. For the narrator it is the same — except that nothing has changed about the night itself. Their heart still desires this nightlife, and the night itself is there, but still, the time for roving has ended.


During the second, metaphorical stanza, the narrator is describing the process of aging. Eventually, a sheath that is used too often becomes worn out; it is the same, they claim, with a heart and soul that desires the night, but exist within a body that is losing its ability to enjoy itself — it too is becoming worn out. They still believe that the night itself exists for the kind of aimless wandering they’ve been enjoying, but it doesn’t matter — that period in their life is ended. It’s time to grow up, whether they want to or not, because they now need rest more than they need to rove all night.


Another interpretation could be that ‘So We’ll Go No More a Roving‘ describes a romance ended early. To describe that the heart remains “as loving” and that the night is made for that purpose could be to suggest a one-night stand between the narrator and another person, the “we” of “yet we’ll go no more a-roving.” Now that the day has returned, the narrator may be suggesting, the romance is ended, and they must both return to their lives, for he does not have it in him to continue the romance beyond that one night together.


02 Apr 24 - 07:00 PM (#4200321)
Subject: RE: Lyr/Chords Req: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
From: GUEST,Rory

Recording

Song: So We'll Go No More A-Roving
Artist: Susan Mckeown
Album: Singing in the Dark (2010)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWushG8qZ-A