woodman spare that tree (1837) The first environmental song?

Woodman spare that tree (1837)

Woodman, spare that tree!
Touch not a single bough!
In youth it sheltered me,
And I'll protect it now.
'Twas my forefather's hand
That placed it near his cot:
There, woodman, let it stand,
Thy axe shall harm it not!

That old familiar tree,
Whose glory and renown
Are spread o'er land and sea,
And wouldst thou hew it down?
Woodman, forbear thy stroke!
Cut not its earth-bound ties;
Oh, spare that aged oak,
Now towering to the skies!

When but an idle boy
I sought its grateful shade;
In all their gushing joy
Here too my sisters played.
My mother kissed me here;
My father pressed my hand --
Forgive this foolish tear,
But let that old oak stand!

My heart-strings round thee cling,
Close as thy bark, old friend!
Here shall the wild-bird sing,
And still thy branches bend.
Old tree! the storm still brave!
And, woodman, leave the spot:
While I've a hand to save,
Thy axe shall harm it not.

The song is from the following site:
http://www.victorianweb.org/mt/parlorsongs/3.html
from where I site the credits:
Sung by Derek B. Scott, Professor of Critical Musicology, University of Leeds, to his own piano accompaniment c. 1980. Professor Scott comments that The English-Jewish singer pianist Russell influenced the direction and style of American and English commercial popular song in the late 1830s and the 1840s. This song was composed on an American tour, to a poem by Morris, which had been first published in the New York Mirror Magazine in 1830.

more about the creator of the poem:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Pope_Morris

Category:

Music

Tags:

• woodman spare that tree
• George Pope Morris
• first environmental song
• ecological song

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