Down by the Sally Gardens.

Down by the Sally Gardens my love and I did meet.

She passed the Sally Gardens with little snow white feet.

She bid me ‘Take love easy as the leaves grow on the tree’,

But I, being young and foolish with her did not agree.




In a field down by the river my love and I did stand,

And on my leaning shoulder she laid her snow white hand.

She bid me ‘Take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs’,

But I, being young and foolish and now am full of tears.




Down by the Sally Gardens my love and I did meet.

She passed the Sally Gardens with little snow white feet.

She bid me ‘Take love easy as the leaves grow on the tree’,

But I, being young and foolish with her did not agree.

She bid me ‘Take life easy, as the grass grows on the weirs’,

But I, being young and foolish and now am full of tears.




William Butler Yeats the Irish poet indicates it was his attempt to reconstruct an old song from 3 lines imperfectly remembered by an old peasant woman in Sligo who often sang them to herself.
In 1920 Rebecca Clarke 1886-1979 set the texts to music.Salley is an anglicisation of the Irish Sailech meaning willow – a tree of the genus Salix. Willows are known as Salley trees in parts of Ireland.

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