“Eileen Aroon”

Description

The singer compares Eileen to a gem and a flower but "dearest her constancy." If she were not true her lover would never love again. But while all else changes she, like truth alone, "is a fixed star"

Cross references

  • cf. "Robin Adair" (tune)
  • cf. "Sadly to Mine Heart Appealing" (portions of Stephen Foster's tune)

Recordings

  • The Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, "Eileen Aroon" (on IRClancyMakem02)

References

  1. DT, EILAROON* (cf. EILAROO.NOT)
  2. ADDITIONAL: Kathleen Hoagland, editor, One Thousand Years of Irish Poetry (New York, 1947), pp. 117-118, "Eileen Aroon" (a translation from the Irish very unlike the usual English version); pp. 415-417, "Aileen Aroon" (the Griffin version) (2 texts)
  3. H. Halliday Sparling, Irish Minstrelsy (London, 1888), pp. 341-343, 501, "Eileen Aroon"
  4. ADDITIONAL: Maud Karpeles, _Folk Songs of Europe_, Oak, 1956, 1964, p. 64, prints the Irish Gaelic version, "Eibhlin a Ruin," with a loose English translation, "Eileen Aroon" (2 texts, 1 tune)
  5. BI, RcEilAro

About

Author: English translation by Gerald Griffin (1803-1840) (source: Sparling)
Earliest date: 1888 (Sparling)
Keywords: love lyric nonballad
Found in: Ireland