“When I First Said I Loved Only You”. Sung By: Maura O'Connell.

“When I First Said I Loved Only You”.

Sung By: Maura O'Connell.

Available on YouTube

HERE

Maura O’Connell singing on 

American Music Shop in the 1990s. 

This version comes from Irish playwright 

Sean O’Casey’s adaption of the earlier Poem/Song by Canadian schoolteacher George Johnson grieving the imminent death of his young wife Margaret (Maggie). 

Though the couple were not to enjoy long life together, 

the Poem “When You and I Were Young” contemplates 

what it might have been to reminisce in old age 

about their younger days. 

Some time later, J. A. Butterfield composed 

this hauntingly beautiful music for the Poem. 

Sean O’Casey’s Play that re-introduced the tune 

with these words was “The Plough And The Stars” (1926).

The violets were scenting the woods, Maggie,

Displaying their charm to the breeze

When I first said I loved only you, Maggie,

And you said you loved only me

Chestnut bloom gleams through the glade, Maggie,

A robin sang loud from a tree

When I first said I loved only you, Maggie,

And you said you loved only me

A golden row of daffodils shone, Maggie,

And danced with the leaves on the breeze

When I first said I loved only you, Maggie,

And you said you loved only me

The birds in the trees sang a song, Maggie,

Of happier transports to be

When I first said I loved only you, Maggie,

And you said you loved only me

Our dreams they have never come true, Maggie,

Our hopes, they never were to be

When I first said I loved only you, Maggie,

And you said you loved only me.

Lyrics: GENIUS.COM