Wednesday, October 10, 2012

" 'tis the Last Rose(s) of Summer"

Here's a bouquet just for you as my apology for not writing last night:

This morning I took the vegetable matter (we call it our compostery) out to our compost heap and enjoyed the walk through the almost-rain.  Actually, it felt as though I was in a cloud and was merely occasionally bumping into the suspended water droplets.  Quite nice! 

That walk was made even nicer as I walked back to my house and noticed that two of the rose bushes against the back wall of our family room still had roses. It is October 10, you know; I sang to them as I cut them. By bringing them into the house, we can enjoy them (can't see them from our window), and they will probably last longer. Both of these roses are of the David Austin family of roses that I love so much. The yellow is "Graham Thomas" and the pinkish one is "Abraham Darby".  As I've said before, it was a great summer for our roses.
 
The poem, "The Last Rose of Summer", was written by Thomas More (1780-1852) and turned into a hauntingly lovely song by composer John Andrew Stevenson (1761-1833).  Here are the lyrics of this old song:
 
'Tis the last rose of summer left blooming alone
All her lovely companions are faded and gone
No flower of her kindred, no rosebud is nigh
To reflect back her blushes and give sigh for sigh
 
I'll not leave thee, thou lone one, to pine on the stem
Since the lovely are sleeping, go sleep thou with them
Thus kindly I scatter thy leaves o'er the bed
Where thy mates of the garden lie scentless and dead
 
So soon may I follow when friendships decay
And from love's shining circle the gems drop away
When true hearts lie withered and fond ones are flown
Oh who would inhabit this bleak world alone?
This bleak world alone.
 
And for a very special end to this entry, here is a link to this song sung by Celtic Women (click on the link):
 
 
 P.S.  We saw some great photos from the  Schenectady guild's recent show the  thanks to Karen's blog:
http://merrymercs.blogspot.com/

Here are some more from Lynn aka Quilting Mama:
http://thisquiltingmama.blogspot.com/ 


2 comments:

  1. the roses are beautiful and so is the voice of the woman who sang the song!

    Thanks for the quilt show photos! I'd seen Karen's -- but who is Quilting Mama?

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  2. Noel, the photograph is magnificent. My roses except for the climber (New Dawn) leave me weeping in despair. Some day I must talk to you about the secret of growing roses. Thanks for the full listing of the Last Rose of Summer--it's a tear jerker. Although I appreciated the voices of the Celtic Women I could not make out the words of the song. I also explored your other links. I can see why you enthuse over quilts. I particularly loved the poppy.

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