Thro’ grief and thro’ danger (Michael William Balfe)

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• (Posted 2024-01-09)  CPDL #78667:     

Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2024-01-09).   Score information: Letter, 12 pages, 544 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: Thro’ grief and thro’ danger
Composer: Anonymous (Traditional)
Arranger: Michael William Balfe
Lyricist: Thomas Moore
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong, Folksong

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1859 J. Alfred Novello
Description: THE IRISH PEASANT TO HIS MISTRESS

AIR: I ONCE HAD A TRUE-LOVE

Original text and translations

English text

Thro’ grief and thro’ danger thy smile hath cheer’d my way,
Till hope seem’d to bud from each thorn that round me lay;
The darker our fortune, the brighter our pure love burn’d,
Till shame into glory, till fear into zeal was turn’d;
Oh! slave as I was, in thy arms my spirit felt free,
And bless’d e’en the sorrows that made me more dear to thee.

Thy rival was honor’d, while thou wert wrong’d and scorn’d,
Thy crown was of briers, while gold her brows adorn’d;
She woo’d me to temples, while thou lay’st hid in caves,
Her friends were all masters, while thine, alas! were slaves;
Yet cold in the earth, at thy feet, I would rather be,
Than wed what I lov’d not, or turn one thought from thee.

They slander thee sorely, who say thy vows are frail–
Hadst thou been a false one, thy cheek had look’d less pale.
They say, too, so long thou hast worn those ling’ring chains,
That deep in thy heart they have printed their servile stains–
Oh! Do not believe them, – no chain could that soul subdue–
Where shineth thy spirit, there liberty shineth too!