Blogbat: Weekend Fun & Song

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March 26, 2005

Weekend Fun & Song

It seems the President’s little poem in my previous post has caught me up in the mood for further rhyme. After beginning my digging I scared up an old book of songs published in 1926. The collection: Lorenz’s Short Secular Songs for Men (although some are sacred). From it now I’ll share with you three of these in hopes they your heart will also warm as did they mine in reading them. It was really fun going through all of them tonight as I sat outside under the light, but I managed to pick out three I thought you might enjoy as well.

I had to stop a few times and think though: it's amazing how those who’ve gone before us and who have benefited from seeing it all can give to us and the lives we live now the wisdom of knowing that none of it which now we face is new in way of challenge.

Some of the songs are of love; others of faith, home or virtue – or silly things – but I think you’ll find the selections below charming for every incarnation in which they come. I wish only that I could also add their musical notation so that you could know their melodies. However, a simple search by Google might yield for you one or two midi files that will fit the bill. The three chosen below today reflect more of the lighter side of things. Enjoy.

#29 Drink to Me Only with Thine Eyes

Drink to me only with thine eyes

And I will pledge with mine;

Or leave a kiss within the cup,

And I’ll not ask for wine;

The thirst that from soul doth rise,

Doth ask a drink divine;

But might I of Jove’s nectar sip,

I would not change for thine.

I sent thee late a rosy wreath,

Not so much hon’ring thee

As giving it a hope that there

It could not withered be;

But thou thereon didst only breathe,

And sent’st it back to me,

Since when it grows and smells, I swear,

Not of itself but thee.

#33 Mary and the William Goat

Oh Mary had a William goat, William goat, William goat,

Mary had a William goat, and he was lined with zinc,