Danny Boy Read Online Free Page A

beginning of World War I inspired Weatherly to plumb the kind of passion and tragedy that only wartime can convey. In the same romantic and heroic vein as “Danny Boy,” he wrote “The Deathless Army”:
    Marching for the dear Old Country ,
    Leading us for evermore ,
    For the souls of the heroes die not ,
    In the land that they adore!
    The other song which gained Fred a lot of notice and quite a bit of money was “Roses of Picardy.” It turned out to be a huge hit with the troops and their left-behind loves during World War I. Written in 1916, it proved, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that our man liked roses:
    She is watching by the poplars ,
    Colinette with the sea-blue eyes ,
    She is watching and longing and waiting ,
    Where the long white roadway lies .
    And a song stirs in the silence ,
    As the wind in the boughs above ,
    She listens and starts and trembles ,
    â€™Tis the first little song of love:
    Roses are shining in Picardy ,
    In the hush of the silver dew ,
    Roses are flow’ring in Picardy ,
    But there’s never a rose like you!
    And the roses will die with the summertime ,
    And our roads may be far apart ,
    But there’s one rose that dies Not in Picardy!
    â€™Tis the rose that I keep in my heart!
    And the years fly on forever ,
    Till the shadows veil their skies ,
    But he loves to hold her little hands ,
    And Look in her sea-blue eyes .
    And she sees the road by the poplars ,
    Where they met in the bygone years ,
    For the first little song of the roses
    Is the last little song she hears:
    Roses are shining in Picardy ,
    In the Hush of the silver dew ,
    Roses are flow’ring in Picardy ,
    But there’s never a rose like you!
    And the roses will die with the summertime ,
    And our roads may be far apart ,
    But there’s one rose that dies Not in Picardy!
    â€™Tis the rose that I keep In my heart!
    As we now know, Weatherly did not intend for the lyrics of “Danny Boy” to accompany the Londonderry air originally. He had another composition in mind when he wrote it in 1910, but the song never got attention, and so he filed it away for a couple of years. In 1912, however, his sister-in-law loved the melody, which she probably discovered in either Australian Percy Grainger’s arrangement of the Londonderry air, or George Petrie’s Ancient Music of Ireland . She sent it to Weatherly in England, feeling only he could do the beautiful tune justice. Although charmed by the air, Fred did not see the need to write something specific for it. Instead, he realized that he had written a song several years before which fit the melody perfectly, with only the need for a few minor alterations, and just like that, “Danny Boy” was reborn.
    It was not likely that Weatherly’s in-law was aware of the fact that many poets and writers, including Thomas Moore, Alfred Perceval Graves, Edward Lawson, and some ninety-plus others, had transcribed words to thismelody. All other versions quickly evaporated and “Danny Boy” evolved into the accepted lyrics to the air. Graves, author of “Trottin’ to the Fair” and a friend of Weatherly, apparently hit the overhanging eaves in rage when he learned that his old pal was co-opting this public domain tune. Alfred didn’t think it sporting of Fred, and it led to a sundering of the friendship. It seems as if Weatherly always had his finger on the sensitive pulse of his fellow humans, which made him an effective barrister as well as a songwriter. When the music publisher Boosey of Boosey and Hawkes in London accepted “Danny Boy” for publication, it caught the public’s immediate attention. Europe maintained its usual ferment, with war clouds darkening the sky, raising the possibility of young men marching off to war. “Danny Boy,” with his pipes and his call to duty and departure, developed into a hymn hummed with epic sadness across the British Isles. They crooned other songs, too,