The Last Rose of Summer

You might wonder what poetry has to do with my tree or with this project, but the famous poem The Last Rose of Summer was written in Jenkinstown Wood by Thomas Moore in 1805 while staying at Jenkinstown Park. The piece is probably better known as a song, having been set to music by many composers including Sir John Stevenson (who wrote the most widely-known version), Felix Mendelssohn, Friedrich von Flotow and Heinrich Wilhelm Ernst. Indeed, the poem is so well-known that it was even immortalised in James Joyce’s Ulysses.

Stevenson’s setting has been recorded by Clannad, Sarah Brightman, Charlotte Church and the Irish Tenors, and Chloë Agnew (daughter of Twink). In this version, from Celtic Woman, it is sung by Méav Ní Mhaolchatha and New Zealander Hayley Westenra.

Take a moment to enjoy a beautiful work, composed where the shadows of my adopted tree now fall…

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