The Last Rose of Summer

The Last Rose of Summer is a poem by Irish poet Thomas Moore, who was a friend of Byron and Shelley. Moore wrote it in 1805 while at Jenkinstown Park in County Kilkenny, Ireland. Sir John Stevenson set the poem to its widely-known melody, and this was published in a collection of Moore's work called Irish Melodies (1807-34).

Friedrich von Flotow uses the song in his opera "Martha," premiered in 1847 in Vienna. It is a favorite air ("Letzte Rose") of the character Lady Harriet. The interpolation works, and indeed the song helped popularize the opera. (According to the 1954 Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the opera grew from an 1844 ballet-pantomime, "Lady Henriette," for which Flotow wrote the music to Act One. Burgmuller and Deldevez wrote the rest of the music; "Lady Henriette" was produced in Paris.) It has also been arranged into a set of extremely difficult variations by Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst for the violin. The song is mentioned in James Joyce Ulysses,.

Clannad released a rendition of the song on their album Crann Úll. Sarah Brightman recorded the song for her album The Trees They Grow So High. It is sung in the musical group Celtic Woman by Méav Ní Mhaolchatha and Hayley Westenra, and was made popular in the twenty-first century in a recording by Charlotte Church and the Irish Tenors. Also, Chloë Agnew's solo version is recorded on her self-titled album and in the Celtic Woman: A New Journey tours, she sang duets with Ní Mhaolchatha, Westenra, and the vocalist-guitarist of the same group, Lynn Hilary. Agnew and Hilary are performing the same version in the Isle Of Hope tour. Ní Mhaolchatha's solo version is also included in her Celtic Journey album. As well as being a common phrase, the poem is alluded to in the Grateful Dead's song "Black Muddy River".

In the 16th (final) episode of the 6th season of the Channel 4 television show "Shameless", the song was sung by Jamie Maguire (played by Aaron McCusker) at his sister Mandy Maguire's (played by Samantha Siddall) funeral. This prompted many people to start researching the song for their personal use.

In the 1995 film An Awfully Big Adventure, the song is used as P.L. O'Hara's theme tune and is a recurrent musical motif in the film's score. The song was also featured in Rick Burns's documentary series, "New York," broadcast on public television.

Poem

'Tis the last rose of summer

Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone;
No flower of her kindred,
No rosebud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
To give sigh for sigh.

I'll not leave thee, thou lone one!
To pine on the stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go, sleep thou with them.
Thus kindly I scatter,
Thy leaves o'er the bed,
Where thy mates of the garden
Lie scentless and dead.

So soon may I follow,
When friendships decay,
From Love's shining circle
The gems drop away.
When true hearts lie withered
And fond ones are flown,
Oh! who would inhabit,

This bleak world alone?

External links

• Audio (midi) and poem