This is a song that I have long enjoyed and which served as inspiration for a poem that I wrote recently for a scene within “GLADE“. It is a soldier’s farewell song to his beloved.

“The Rose of Allendale” is actually an English song written in the 1840s by Charles Jefferys with the music by Sidney Nelson. It is often thought (mistakenly so) to be a traditional Irish or Scottish song, although it is likely based upon an old German folk song.

To be honest, although I like the lyrics, I am not fond of the music. I have an entirely different tune in my head when I read it which doesn’t match anything you’ll find on YouTube.

In any case, here it is.

THE ROSE OF ALLENDALE

The morn was fair, the skies were clear,
No breath came o’er the sea,
When Mary left her Highland cot,
And wander’d forth with me;
Tho’ flower’s deck’d the mountain’s side,
And fragrance fill’d the vale,
By far the sweetest flower there,
Was the Rose of Allendale,
Was the Rose of Allendale,
The Rose of Allendale,
By far the sweetest flower there,
Was the Rose of Allendale.

Where’er I wander’d east or west,
Tho’ fate began to lour,
A solace still was she to me,
In sorrow’s lonely hour.
When tempests lash’d our gallant bark,
And rent her shiv’ring sail,
One maiden form withstood the storm,
‘Twas the Rose of Allendale,
‘Twas the Rose of Allendale,
The Rose of Allendale,
One maiden form withstood the storm,
‘Twas the Rose of Allendale.

And when my fever’d lips were parched
On Afric’s burning sand,
She whisper’d hopes of happiness,
And tales of distant land.
My life had been a wilderness,
Unblest by fortune’s gale,
Had fate not link’d my lot to hers,
The Rose of Allendale,
The Rose of Allendale,
the Rose of Allendale,
Had fate not link’d my lot to hers,
The Rose of Allendale.

– Charles Jefferys, “The Rose of Allendale” (c. 1840s)

Related posts:

Love Lost amidst the forests of the mind… ‘Glade’ – an excerpt Upping Sticks and Crooked Roads