Ah, May the Red Rose Live Alway!

 

Performer: Thomas Hampson

Composer: Stephen Foster

Text: Stephen Foster

Ah! May the Red Rose Live Alway!
by Stephen Foster

 

Ah! may the red rose live alway,
To smile upon earth and sky!
Why should the beautiful ever weep?
Why should the beautiful die?
Lending a charm to every ray
That falls on her cheeks of light,
Giving the zephyr kiss for kiss,
And nursing the dew-drop bright —
Ah! may the red rose live alway,
To smile upon earth and sky!
Why should the beautiful ever weep?
Why should the beautiful die?

Long may the daisies dance the field,
Frolicking far and near!
Why should the innocent hide their heads?
Why should the innocent fear?
Spreading their petals in mute delight
When morn in its radiance breaks,
Keeping a floral festival
Till the night-loving primrose wakes —
Spreading their petals in mute delight
When morn in its radiance breaks,
Keeping a floral festival
Till the night-loving primrose wakes.

Lulled be the dirge in the cypress bough,
That tells of departed flowers!
Ah! that the butterfly’s gilded wing
Fluttered in evergreen bowers!
Sad is my heart for the blighted plants —
Its pleasures are aye as brief —
They bloom at the young year’s joyful call,
And fade with the autumn leaf:
Ah! may the red rose live alway,
To smile upon earth and sky!
Why should the beautiful ever weep?
Why should the beautiful die?

 

about:

As the ballad has roots in the Anglo-Scots-Irish song tradition, scholars have noted that Foster’s “Ah! May the Red Rose Live Alway!” is reminiscent of Irish musician Thomas Moore’s “The Last Rose of Summer,” although Foster’s melody is simpler than that of his Irish predecessor.