Down by the Salley Gardens
W. B. Yeats, 1889
Yeats's lyric, rebuilt from fragments of an old song, in which a young man remembers the girl who bade him take love and life easy.
Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet;She passed the salley gardens with little snow-white feet.She bid me take love easy, as the leaves grow on the tree;But I, being young and foolish, with her would not agree.
In a field by the river my love and I did stand,And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow-white hand.She bid me take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs;But I was young and foolish, and now am full of tears.