A 1837 separation song popular during the American Civil War.
words by Mrs. Marion Crawford
music by Frederick Nicholls Crouch
Mrs. Marion Crawford wrote this poem by the same name as the song and published it in a magazine. Frederick Crouch was a well-known English songwriter. Crouch found the poem and immediately set it to music. At that time, 1837, he was living in England and often chose Irish themes. The song was originally published by D’Almaine & Co., in London. Crouch moved to America in 1849.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Lyrics
- Kathleen Mavourneen!
The gray dawn is breaking
The horn of the hunter
Is heard on the hill
The lark from her light wing
The bright dew is shaking
Kathleen Mavourneen
What slumbering still?
Chorus
Oh! hast thou forgotten
How soon we must sever?
Oh! hast thou forgotten
This day we must part?
It may be for years
And it may be forever
Oh! why art thou silent
Thou voice of my heart?
It may be for years
And it may be forever
Then why art thou silent
Kathleen Mavourneen?
- Kathleen Mavourneen
Awake from thy slumbers
The blue mountains glow
In the sun’s golden light
Ah! where is the spell
That once hung on my slumbers?
Arise in thy beauty
Thou star of my night
Arise in thy beauty
Thou star of my night
Chorus
Mavourneen, Mavourneen
My sad tears are falling
To think that from Erin
And thee I must part
It may be for years
And it may be forever
Then why art thou silent
Thou voice of my heart?
It may be for years
And it may be forever
Then why art thou silent
Kathleen Mavourneen?
Sung here by Fred Feild: