"The Last Rose of Summer" is a poem by the Irish poetThomas Moore. He wrote it in 1805, while staying atJenkinstown Castle in County Kilkenny, Ireland, where he was said to have been inspired by a specimen ofRosa 'Old Blush'.[1]
The poem is set to a traditional tune called "Aisling an Óigfhear", or "The Young Man's Dream",[2] which was transcribed byEdward Bunting in 1792, based on a performance by harper Denis Hempson (Donnchadh Ó hAmhsaigh) at the Belfast Harp Festival.[3] The poem and the tune together were published in December 1813 in volume 5 of Thomas Moore'sA Selection of Irish Melodies. The original piano accompaniment was written byJohn Andrew Stevenson, several other arrangements followed in the 19th and 20th centuries. The poem is now probably at least as well known in its song form as in the original.
'Tis the last rose of summer, Left blooming alone; All her lovely companions Are faded and gone; No flower of her kindred, No rose-bud is nigh, To reflect back her blushes Or give sigh for sigh!
I'll not leave thee, thou lone one. To pine on the stem; Since the lovely are sleeping, Go, sleep thou with them; Thus kindly I scatter Thy leaves o'er the bed, Where thy mates of the garden Lie scentless and dead.
So soon mayI follow, When friendships decay, And from love's shining circle The gems drop away! When true hearts lie withered, And fond ones are flown, Oh! who would inhabit This bleak world alone?[4]
as no. 6 "Sad and Luckless was the Season" in volume 2 of hisIrish Songs, WoO 153 (written 1814, published 1816)
as no. 4 of hisSix National Airs with Variations, Op. 105 for flute and piano (composed 1818, published 1819)
Ferdinand Ries:Grand sestetto ... in which is introduced the admired air 'The Last Rose Summer', Op. 100, for string quartet, double bass, piano (1819)
Friedrich Kalkbrenner:Eighth Fantasia for the piano forte in which is introduced a favourite Irish melody, Op. 50, for piano (1821)
Charles Bochsa:Fantaisie et variations sur un air favori irlandais, for harp (1822)
In Japan, the melody is widely known as the songNiwa-no-Chigusa (庭の千草), meaning "The Plants in the Garden". The poem was adapted by Tadashi Satomi (1824–1886) and published as part ofPrimary School Songbooks (Volume III) in 1884 by theJapanese Education Ministry.
A Swedish language poem "Vid Roines strand" byZacharias Topelius has several times been recorded with this tune, among others byHootenanny Singers in 1966.
Tom Waits included a song entitled "The Last Rose of Summer" on his 1993 albumThe Black Rider, based on the eponymous stage production by Waits,Robert Wilson (director) andWilliam S. Burroughs. In it, the singer talks about the petals of his "favourite rose" being shrouded "in shadows dark and long". The song ends with the lines: "I can be found in the garden singing this song / When the last rose of summer is gone".
Kanye West refers to the poem in his songBlood on the Leaves on his albumYeezus wherein the rapper writes, "That summer night holdin' long and long, 'din long Now waiting for the summer rose and (breathe)" (2013).[8]
Anna Meredith recorded a version as "Last Rose" featured on her album "Varmints" (2016).
Gintaras Januševičius uses the melody (with its Irish title "Aislean an Oigfear") as the opening of his 2019 narrative recital programme "The New Colossus". The programme is dedicated to people who built New York and their stories. The melody is included as a tribute to Irish people. Januševičius then uses attacca to go into the next piece – "L'isle Joyeuse" byClaude Debussy.
In the 1941 filmHere Comes Mr. Jordan, it is the character Joe Pendelton's inability to play "The Last Rose of Summer" on his saxophone in any way other than badly that allows him to prove that he is alive in another man's body; all the other characters think he is the dead man from whom he got the body, but when he plays the sax for his old boxing manager, he uses the same wrong note in the melody as he always did, and which thus confirms his story of coming back from the after-life.
In the 1944 filmGaslight, the melody is associated with the opera singer Alice Alquist, the murdered aunt of the protagonist, Paula (Ingrid Bergman).
In the 1953I Love Lucy, episode "Never Do Business With Friends" (Season 2, Episode 31),Ethel Mertz (played byVivian Vance) sings the first lines of this song while doing housework.
This song is heard played on a 19.5/8-inch upright Polyphon musical box asKatie Johnson is walking to/away from the police station at the start/end of the 1955 Alec Guinness filmThe Ladykillers.
The Last Rose of Summer was also the title (later revised asDying of Paradise) of a three-hour science fiction production written byStephen Gallagher in 1977–78 forPiccadilly Radio.[citation needed]
In the 2000Thaiwestern filmTears of the Black Tiger (Thai:ฟ้าทะลายโจร, orFa Thalai Chon), a translated version of the song called "Kamsuanjan" ("The Moon Lament") was used as the closing song concurrent with the tragic ending of the film.
The song was used in the 2008 video gameEndless Ocean 2: Adventures of the Deep as the theme of the Depths area of the Zahhab Region. It is also playable on the jukebox that the player can purchase in-game.
In the 16th (final) episode of the 6th season (2009) of the UK Channel 4 television seriesShameless, the song was sung by Jamie Maguire (played byAaron McCusker) at the funeral of his sister Mandy Maguire (Samantha Siddall).
The song was featured inFOX TV series,"The Chicago Code" Season 1 Episode 2, "Hog Butcher" (February 2011). This traditional Irish song was sung by Jason Bayle, as the uniformed officer during the memorial service of fallenChicago police officer Antonio Betz.
InRooster Teeth Productions'RWBY web series, the name ofSummer Rose is a direct reference to the poem. The thirteenth line, "Thus Kindly I Scatter", is used as the epitaph on her gravestone in the trailer"Red" and episodes one and twelve of the third season (2015).[13]
In theAustenland (film) (2013), the character of Lady Amelia Heartwright plays a verse of the song while at the pianforte, in an affected and not particularly skilled manner.
In theHangar 13 gameMafia III (2016), one of the main characters, Thomas Burke, can be heard singing this song with sorrow.
In the season 9 premiere ofThe Walking Dead, Hilltop resident Alden (played byCallan McAuliffe) sang a rendition ofThe Last Rose of Summer at the funeral of the blacksmith's son Ken.[16]
^For a description and listing of more than 200 such pieces, see Axel Klein: "'All her lovely companions are faded and gone' – HowThe Last Rose of Summer Became Europe's Favourite Irish Melody" and its appendix, "Utilisations of 'The Last Rose of Summer', respectively 'The Groves of Blarney', by European Composers in the Nineteenth Century, in Chronological Order", in: Sarah McCleave & Brian Caraher (eds.):Thomas Moore and Romantic Inspiration. Poetry, Music, and Politics (London: Routledge, 2018), pp. 128–145 & 231–253;ISBN9781138281479 (hardback),ISBN9781315271132 (e-book).
^Buck, Dudley (1877).The Last Rose of Summer(PDF). New York: G. Schirmer. Retrieved5 August 2023.
Works related toThe Last Rose of Summer at Wikisource
The Last Rose of Summer public domain audiobook atLibriVox (multiple versions)
