CHAPTER VIII
THE SONG
A variety of verse which has great vogue now and which has so developed as to be considered almost as individual as the rondeau or sonnet is the modern “song.”
Formerly the “song” was written to music or at least written that it might be set to music, but now it must sing itself. It may dress in sober iambics if it pleases, but there must be a lilt and go to the words to suggest music. Among the best examples of this form open to the reader are the songs of Robert Burns. Though written to fit old Scotch airs the words themselves suggest a melody to any one with the slightest ear for music. For instance:
“My luve is like a red, red rose
That’s newly sprung in June:
My luve is like the melodie
That’s sweetly played in tune.
“As fair thou art, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I:
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry.
“Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt in the sun:
I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o’ life shall run.
“And fare thee weel, my only luve!
And fare thee weel awhile:
And I will come again, my luve,
Tho’ it were ten thousand mile.”
Though not the author of much printed verse Robert Louis Stevenson has written more than one singing stanza:
“Bright is the ring of words
When the right man rings them,
Fair is the fall of songs
When the singer sings them.
Still they are carolled and said—
On wings they are carried—
After the singer is dead
And the maker buried.”
Going to the works of W. E. Henley we find much very singable verse. In the quoted example he has used in the chorus the suggestion of an old Scotch stanza:
“Oh Falmouth is a fine town with ships in the bay,
And I wish from my heart it’s there I was to-day:
I wish from my heart I was far away from here,
Sitting in my parlor and talking to my dear.
For it’s home, dearie, home—it’s home I want to be,
Our topsails are hoisted and we’ll away to sea.
Oh, the oak and the ash and the bonnie birken tree,
They’re all growing green in the old countree.”
Austin Dobson in a longer poem makes use of the following stanza: