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