Thomas Moore
- Not to be confused with Thomas More.
'Tis the last rose of Summer,
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone. ~ The Last Rose of Summer
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone. ~ The Last Rose of Summer
Thomas Moore (May 28, 1779 – February 25, 1852) was an Irish poet and hymnist, now best remembered for the lyrics of The Last Rose of Summer.
Sourced
- Faintly as tolls the evening chime,
Our voices keep tune and our oars keep time.- Poems Relating to America. A Canadian Boat Song, st. 1.
- A Persian's heaven is easily made:
'Tis but black eyes and lemonade.- Intercepted Letters; or The Two-Penny Post Bag, VI (1813).
- Oft, in the stilly night,
Ere Slumber's chain has bound me,
Fond Memory brings the light
Of other days around me;
The smiles, the tears,
Of boyhood's years,
The words of love then spoken;
The eyes that shone,
Now dimm'd and gone,
The cheerful hearts now broken!- National Airs, Oft in the Stilly Night, st. 1 (1815).
- I feel like one,
Who treads alone
Some banquet-hall deserted,
Whose lights are fled,
Whose garlands dead,
And all but he departed!- Oft in the Stilly Night, st. 2 (1815).
- What though youth gave love and roses,
Age still leaves us friends and wine.- National Airs, Spring and Autumn, st. 1 (1815).
- All that's bright must fade,—
The brightest and the fleetest;
All that's sweet was made,
But to be lost when sweetest.- "All that's Bright Must Fade" (Indian Air), National Airs, (1818–1827).
- Sound the loud timbrel o'er Egypt's dark sea!
Jehovah has triumphed—his people are free.- Sacred Songs, Sound the Loud Timbrel, st. 1.
- Oh, call it by some better name,
For friendship sounds too cold.- Ballads and Songs. Oh, Call It by Some Better Name, st. 1.
- "Come, come," said Tom's father, "at
your time of life,
There's no longer excuse for thus
playing the rake--
It is time you should think, boy, of
taking a wife."
"Why, so it is father--whose wife
shall I take?"
Irish Melodies (1807-1834)
- Go where glory waits thee,
But while fame elates thee,
Oh! still remember me!- Go Where Glory Waits Thee, st. 1.
- Oh! breathe not his name, let it sleep in the shade,
Where cold and unhonour'd his relics are laid.- Oh Breathe Not His Name, st. 1.
- And the tear that we shed, though in secret it rolls,
Shall long keep his memory green in our souls.- Oh Breathe Not His Name, st. 1.
- The harp that once through Tara's halls
The soul of music shed,
Now hangs as mute on Tara's walls
As if that soul were fled.- The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls, st. 1.
- Rich and rare were the gems she wore,
And a bright gold ring on her wand she bore.- Rich and Rare Were the Gems She Wore, st. 1.
- Believe me, if all those endearing young charms
Which I gaze on so fondly to-day,
Were to change by to-morrow and fleet in my arms,
Like fairy gifts fading away.
Thou wouldst still be adored as this moment thou art,
Let thy loveliness fade as it will,
And around the dear ruin each wish of my heart,
Would entwine itself verdantly still.- Believe Me, If All Those Endearing Young Charms, st. 1.
- But there's nothing half so sweet in life
As love's young dream.- Love's Young Dream', st. 1.
- Eyes of unholy blue.
- By That Lake Whose Gloomy Shore, st. 2.
- 'Tis the last rose of Summer,
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone.- The Last Rose of Summer, st. 1.
- The Minstrel Boy to the war is gone,
In the ranks of death you'll find him;
His father's sword he has girded on,
And his wild harp slung behind him.- The Minstrel Boy, st. 1.
- And the best of all ways
To lengthen our days
Is to steal a few hours from the night, my dear!- The Young May Moon, st. 1.
- You may break, you may shatter the vase, if you will,
But the scent of the roses will hang round it still.- Farewell! But Whenever You Welcome the Hour, st. 3.
- No eye to watch, and no tongue to wound us
All earth forgot, and all heaven around us.- Come O'er the Sea, st. 2.
- The light that lies
In woman's eyes,
Has been my heart's undoing.- The Time I've Lost in Wooing, st. 1.
- My only books
Were woman's looks,
And folly's all they've taught me.- The Time I've Lost in Wooing, st. 1.
- Ask a woman's advice, and, whate'er she advise,
Do the very reverse and you're sure to be wise.- How To Make a Good Politician.
Lalla Rookh (1817)
Part I-III: The Veiled Prophet of Khorassan
- This narrow isthmus 'twixt two boundless seas,
The past, the future,—two eternities!- Part II
- But Faith, fanatic Faith, once wedded fast
To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last.- Part II
- There's a bower of roses by Bendemeer's stream,
And the nightingale sings round it all the day long;
In the time of my childhood 'twas like a sweet dream,
To sit in the roses and hear the bird's song.- Part II
- Some flow'rets of Eden ye still inherit,
But the trail of the serpent is over them all.- Part II
- Like the stain'd web that whitens in the sun,
Grow pure by being purely shone upon.
Part IV: Paradise and the Peri
- One morn a Peri at the gate
Of Eden stood disconsolate.
- Take all the pleasures of all the spheres,
And multiply each through endless years,—
One minute of heaven is worth them all.
- But the trail of the serpent is over them all.
Part V-VIII: The Fire-Worshippers
- Oh, ever thus, from childhood's hour,
I 've seen my fondest hopes decay;
I never loved a tree or flower
But 't was the first to fade away.
I never nurs'd a dear gazelle,
To glad me with its soft black eye,
But when it came to know me well
And love me, it was sure to die.
- Paradise itself were dim
And joyless, if not shared with him!- Part VI
- Like Dead Sea fruits, that tempt the eye,
But turn to ashes on the lips.
- Oh for a tongue to curse the slave
Whose treason, like a deadly blight,
Comes o'er the councils of the brave,
And blasts them in their hour of might!
- Beholding heaven, and feeling hell.
- As sunshine broken in the rill,
Though turned astray, is sunshine still.
- Farewell, farewell to thee, Araby's daughter!
Thus warbled a Peri beneath the dark sea.
Part IX: The Light of the Harem
- Alas! how light a cause may move
Dissension between hearts that love!
Hearts that the world in vain had tried,
And sorrow but more closely tied;
That stood the storm when waves were rough,
Yet in a sunny hour fall off,
Like ships that have gone down at sea
When heaven was all tranquillity.
- Love on through all ills, and love on till they die.
- And oh if there be an Elysium on earth,
It is this, it is this!
