The Old Canoe (George Frederick Root)

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• (Posted 2022-09-19)  CPDL #70855:     

Editor: Douglas Walczak (submitted 2022-09-19).   Score information: Letter, 3 pages, 42 kB   Copyright: Personal

Edition notes:

General Information

Title: The Old Canoe
Composer: George Frederick Root
Lyricist:
Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: TTBB
Genre: Secular, Glee

Language: English
Instruments: A cappella

First published: 1889
Description: 

Original text and translations

English text

1. Where the rocks are grey and the shore is steep,
And the waters below look dark and deep,
Where the lofty pine, in the lonely pride,
Leave, gloomily over the murky tide;
Where the reeds and the rushes are tall and rank,
And the weeds grow thick on the winding bank;
Where the shadows are heavy the whole day thro',
Lies at its moorings the old canoe.

Refrain:
The old canoe,
'Twas beautiful and new,
And tho' no more it dips the oar,
I love the old canoe.

2. O, many a time, with a careless hand,
Have I pulled it away from its pebbly strand,
And paddled it down where the stream runs quick,
Where its whirls and wild and the eddies are thick,
And laughed as I leand o'er its rocking side,
And looked below in the broken tide,
To see that the faces and boats were too,
That were mirrored back to the old canoe.
(repeat refrain)

3. But now, as I lean o'er its broken skie,
And look below in the murky tide,
The face that I see there has graver grown,
And the laugh that I hear as a sober tone;
And the hands that once lent the light skin wings,
Have grown familiar with sterner things;
Bit I love to think of the hours that flew
O'er my beautiful days in the old canoe.
(repeat refrain)