Let other folks make money faster

Don't ask me why but while I was practising my singing yesterday I decided to take out an old book from my uni years and came across a song I sung for my 5th Grade AMEB exam. It's called Linden Lea by R. Vaughan Williams. The melody is deceptively simple (deceptively, because it's always the simple melodies that are the hardest to get across emotionally), almost like a hymn, and is very lovely and moving. This is the best version I could find on Youtube:



But when I gave it a try (and failed miserably after not having sung it for 16 odd years!), it was the words that touched me most. They go like this:

Within the woodlands, flow'ry gladed
By the oak trees' mossy moot
The shining grass blades, timber shaded
Now do quiver underfoot
And birds do whistle overhead
And water's bubbling in its bed
And there for me, the apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea

When leaves, that lately were aspringing
Now do fade within the copse
And painted birds do hush their singing
Up upon the timber tops
And brown leaved fruit's a turning red
In cloudless sunshine overhead
With fruit for me, the apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea

Let other folk make money faster
In the air of darkroom'd towns
I don't need a peevish master
Though no man may heed my frowns
I be free to go abroad
Or take again my homeward road
To where, for me, the apple tree
Do lean down low in Linden Lea

The text was written by the Dorset poet William Barnes in the 1840's/1850's (not sure of the exact date) who wrote a lot of poetry in the Dorset dialect. As Wikipedia says "Barnes's poems are characterised by a singular sweetness and tenderness of feeling, deep insight into humble country life and character, and an exquisite feeling for local scenery" which holds very true for Linden Lea.

Not one to give up so easily, I gave it a try again today and it turned out better than yesterday. I would be so bold as to say that it turned out better than it did 16 odd years ago. Unfortunately, my voice isn't as lovely and supple as it was then, just like the rest of me (singing an open high A was a piece of cake, now I can just baaaarely get an open E flat out) and the notes do sometimes sound a bit forced, but I think I get the words across better than I did then.

I was always environmentally aware - you know, recycling stuff, saving water, I was born on Earth Day after all! - but I now understand our connection to nature more deeply. My dream now isn't to have an apartment somewhere in the North Shore overlooking the Opera House and Harbour Bridge as it was then, rather, a little wooden cottage, somewhere in Gorski Kotar with a vegetable patch, an orchard and some bees to call my own, somewhere where I can put my ear to the ground and listen to my veggies and fruit growing.

Yeah, I know, I'm a typcial baka (granny)!!!

Now go for a nice walk somewhere instead of being on the net :)
The Knitting Songbird