The Young Mans Dreams
| TYPE | 3 - Complex Melody |
| TOPIC | Aisling |
| TUNE STRUCTURE | A4 B8 |
| VERSE STRUCTURE | 6v 8l |
| TIME SIGNATURE | 34 |
| KEY SIGNATURE | ♯ |
| TONAL CENTRE | G |
| INCIPIT | GB♭C'B♭GGE♭CE♭FGE♭ |
| GENRE | Amhrán Mór |
| TEXT SOURCE | James Hardiman, Irish Minstrelsy, or, Bardic Remains of Ireland (London: J. Robbins, 1831), pp.305-309 |
| TUNE SOURCE | Bunting Notebooks. Special Collections, QUB Library. MS 4.12 (1796-1843) no.233 |
| FIRST LINE | Aisling ghéur do dhearcar féin |
| NOTATED INCIPIT |
The Young Man’s DreamIn a dream of delusion, methought I was laid,By a brook overarched with a fluttering abade;A delicious recess, where silver-tonged rills,And far cataracts deep roar echoed round form the hills:Gleaming fish in clear waters were wantonly playing,And hoarse murmuring bees o’er wild flow’rets were straying;While sweet honey distilled from old oaks to regale,The young and the fair in that odorous vale.A beautiful bird on a blossomy spray,Was warbling a varied and rapturous lay;As I listened entranced in delightful surprise,A lovely enchantress astonished my eyes;Her cheeks like the quicken’s rich clusters were glowing,Her amber silk locks to her white ancles flowing;Like a keen freezing star gleamed each sparkling blue eye,Alas! In one month, for her loss, I must die.When first she decried me, she startled, alarmed,And with coy supplication my sympathy charmed:“ Oh favoured of me! Do not ruin a maid,By fate to your power unprotected betrayed;For with sorrow and shame broken hearted I’d die,Or for life thro’ wild deserts a lunatic fly.”-“Oh, peerless perfection! How canst thou believe,That I could such innocence hurt or deceive?I implore the Great Fountain of glory and loveAnd all the blessed saints in their synod above;That connubial affections our souls may combine,And the pearl of her sex be immutably mine.The green grass shall not grow, nor the sun shed his light,Nor the fair moon and the stars gem the forehead of night;The streams shall flow upwards, the fish quit the sea,Ere I shall prove faithless, dear angel to thee.”Her ripe lip and soft bosom then gently I prest,And clasped her half-blushing consent to my breast;My heart fluttering light as a bird on the spray,-But I woke, and alas, the vain dream fled away.