We may roam thro’ this world (Michael William Balfe)

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• (Posted 2024-01-11)  CPDL #78680:     

Editor: David Anderson (submitted 2024-01-11).   Score information: Letter, 16 pages, 696 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: We may roam thro’ this world
Composer: Anonymous (Traditional)
Arranger: Michael William Balfe
Lyricist: Thomas Moore
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong, Folksong

Language: English
Instruments: Piano

First published: 1859 J. Alfred Novello
Description: AIR: GARYONE

Original text and translations

English text

We may roam thro’ this world, like a child at a feast,
Who but sips of a sweet, and then flies to the rest;
And, when pleasure begins to grow dull in the east,
We may order our wings and be off to the west;
But if hearts, that feel, and eyes, that smile,
Are the dearest gifts that heaven supplies,
We never need leave our own green isle,
For sensitive hearts and for sun-bright eyes.
Then remember, wherever your goblet is crown’d,
Thro’ this world whether eastward or westward you roam,
When a cup to the smile of dear woman goes round,
Oh! remember the smile which adorns her at home.

In England, the garden of beauty is kept
By a dragon of prudery, plac’d within call;
But so oft this unamiable dragon has slept,
That the garden’s but carelessly watch’d after all.
Oh! they want the wild, sweet-briery fence,
Which round the flowers of Erin dwells,
Which warns the touch, while winning the sense,
Nor charms us least, when it most repels.
Then remember, wherever your goblet is crown’d,
Thro’ this world whether eastward or westward you roam,
When a cup to the smile of dear woman goes round,
Oh! remember the smile which adorns her at home.

In France, when the heart of a woman sets sail
On the ocean of wedlock its fortune to try,
Love seldom goes far in a vessel so frail,
But just pilots her off, and then bids her good-bye!
While the daughters of Erin keep the boy
Ever smiling beside his faithful oar,
Through billows of woe and beams of joy
The same as he look’d, when he left the shore.
Then remember, wherever your goblet is crown’d,
Thro’ this world whether eastward or westward you roam,
When a cup to the smile of dear woman goes round,
Oh! remember the smile which adorns her at home.