I Saw Thy Form in Youthful Prime, Lyric Variant 01

This item is part of the I. G. Greer Folksong Collection which consists of more than 300 individual song titles and their variants as collected by Isaac Garfield Greer (1881-1967) from informants, primarily in Ashe, Wilkes and Watauga counties. The collection includes manuscripts, typescript transcriptions produced by Dr. Greer’s clerical staff, and handwritten musical notations. Songs range from traditional Child Ballads, traditional English and Scottish ballads as well as their American variants, to 19th century popular music to musical compositions of local origin.

Irish poetry

Memories--Songs and music

Death--Songs and music

Aging--Songs and music

Moore, Thomas, 1779-1852

AC.113 Isaac Garfield (I.G.) Greer Papers and Recordings

W. L. Eury Appalachian Collection, Appalachian State University

Greer, I. G. (Isaac Garfield), 1881-1967

PDF

English

Text

Youthful Prime

I saw thy form in youthful prime,
Nor thought that pale decay.
Would steal before the steps of time,
And waste its bloom away Mary!

Yet still thy features wore that light,
Which fleets not with the breath,
And life never looked more purely bright,
Than in thy smile of death Mary!

As streams that run over golden mines,
With modest murmur glide,
Nor seem to know the wealth that shines,
With in this their gentle tide Mary!

So, veiled beneath a simple guise,
Thy radiant genius shone,
And that which charmed all other yeyes,
Seemed worthless in thy own Mary!

If souls could always dwell above
Thou never hadest left thy sphere.
Or, could we keep the souls we love,
We never had lost thee here Mary!

Though many a gifted mind we meet,
Though fairest forms we see.
To live with them is far less sweet,
Than to remember thee Mary!

1820

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