First Rose of Summer

From the 1922 musical comedy “The Cabaret Girl”.
words by P. G. Wodehouse and Anne Caldwell
music by Jerome Kern


The sheet music:


Accompaniment:


Lyrics

  1. It was golden summer weather
    The skies were a-blaze
    As we wandered there together
    In the sunlit garden ways
    Merrily their songs of welcome
    Birds trilled in each tree
    The roses knew that their queen was nigh
    They bowed their heads as she passed them by
    On that day when first she came to me

Refrain
There she stood in a world of roses
Eyes a-dreaming and sweet cheeks a-glow
Breezes playing went a-straying
Through her tresses with soft caresses
All around, with their petals gleaming
Shone the roses in a brave array
But the first rose that blooms in summer
Was not so lovely as her face that day

  1. When the burning day was over
    Like some sweet refrain
    Came a fragrant scent of clover
    From the meadows down the lane
    Shadows o’er the lawn went creeping
    And dark grew the sky
    The roses slept with their petals furled
    We seemed alone in a magic world
    All alone together, she and I

Refrain
There we stood in a world of roses
‘Neath the shy light of the sickle moon
Birds were sleeping, stars were peeping
In the gloaming the bats were roaming
All around in the dewy twilight
All the roses hid their heads away
But the first rose that blooms in summer
Was not so lovely as her face that day


Sung here by Fred Feild: