Art Song Central

Title: My love’s an arbutus

Music: Traditional, arranged by Charles Villiers Stanford (1852-1924)

Text: Alfred Perceval Graves (1846-1931)

Free at Art Song Central:

• PDF: My love’s an arbutus
• Key: F Major
• Range: C4 – D5
• Source: Folk-Songs and Other Songs for Children
• Also available in F major in Folk Songs of Many Nations

Elsewhere on the Internet:

• PDF available at the IN Harmony Sheet Music collection
• Key: F Major
• Range: C4 – D5
• Also available in G Major in Songs of the British Isles and in A♭ Major in Sixty Irish Songs and Modern Music and Musicians, all downloadable via Google Books.

Mp3:

• Not yet.

MIDI:

• Not yet.

My love’s an arbutus
By the borders of Lene,
So slender and shapely
In her girdle of green.
And I measure the pleasure
Of her eye’s sapphire sheen
By the blue skies that sparkle
Through the soft branching screen.

But though ruddy the berry
And snowy the flower
That brighten together
The arbutus bower,
Perfuming and blooming
Through sunshine and shower,
Give me her bright lips
And her laugh’s pearly dower.

Alas, fruit and blossom
Shall lie dead on the lea,
And Time’s jealous fingers
Dim your young charms, Machree.
But unranging, unchanging,
You’ll still cling to me,
Like the evergreen leaf
To the arbutus tree.

• Recmusic.org has the text.