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Thomas Moore
The Last Rose of Summer 
( Traditional Irish )

The Last Rose of Summer is a poem by Irish poet Thomas Moore. Moore
wrote it in 1805 while at Jenkinstown Park in County Kilkenny, Ireland.
It is set to a traditional tune called "Aislean an Oigfear" or "The
Young Man's Dream", which had been transcribed by Edward Bunting in 1792
 based on a performance by harper Donnchadh Ó hÁmsaigh (Denis Hempson)
at the Belfast Harp Festival. The poem and the tune together were
published in December 1813 in volume 5 of Moore's Irish Melodies (full
title: A Selection of Irish Melodies).


"'Tis the last rose of summer
Left blooming alone;
All her lovely companions
Are faded and gone;
No flower of her kindred,
No rosebud is nigh,
To reflect back her blushes,
To give sigh for sigh.

I'll not leave thee, thou lone one!
To pine on the stem;
Since the lovely are sleeping,
Go, sleep thou with them.
Thus kindly I scatter,
Thy leaves o'er the bed,
Where thy mates of the garden
Lie scentless and dead.

So soon may I follow,
When friendships decay,
From Love's shining circle
The gems drop away.
When true hearts lie withered
And fond ones are flown,
Oh! who would inhabit,
This bleak world alone?"