Annotation:Blind Man's Bride (The)

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BLIND MAN'S BRIDE, THE. Irish, Air (cut time). C Major. Standard tuning (fiddle). One Part. "The Blind Man's Bride" is the name of a poem by Caroline Sheridan Norton (1808-1877), published in the mid 1830's and set to music by 1850. The first stanza goes:

When first, beloved, in vanish'd hours
The blind man sought thy love to gain,
They said thy cheek was bright as flowers
New freshen'd by the summer rain:
They said thy movements, swift yet soft,
Were such as make the wingéd dove
Seem, as it gently soars aloft,
The image of repose and love.

The melody was entered into the mid-19th century music manuscript collection of County Cork uilleann piper and Church of Ireland cleric James Goodman. One musical setting was composed by Massachusetts composer Francis Boott [1] (1813-1904).

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