Meter of the "Anacreontic Song"?

From: Vivian Ramalingam (vivian@me.umn.edu)
Date: Wed Jul 02 2003 - 17:42:42 PDT

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    Comrades: Having read the material Brother Mike located for us,
    regarding the background of "The Star Spangled Banner", I question only
    the assessment that the meter of its putative forebear is unusual "in
    American song". Does that phrase mean "song composed in America" or
    "song sung (=
    known) in America"? If the latter, here is a well-known example, by the
    popular Irish poet Thomas Moore, published shortly before Key wrote his
    version of an elaborate interplay of anapaests.

    http://www.acronet.net/~robokopp/eire/asabeamo.htm

    -- Vivian Ramalingam (planning to have a Fifth on the Fourth, Anacreontically)

    As a beam o'er the face of the waters may glow

    As a Beam O'er the Face of the Waters May Glow

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    Melody - "The Young Man's Dream"
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    Thomas Moore, 1808, from Irish Melodies, vol. 1

    As a beam o'er the face of the waters may glow
    While the tide runs in darkness and coldness below,
    So the cheek may be tinged with a warm sunny smile,
    Though the cold heart to ruin runs darkly the while.

    2. One fatal remembrance, one sorrow that throws
    Its bleak shade alike o'er our joys and our woes,
    To which life nothing darker or brighter can bring,
    For which joy has no balm and affliction no sting --

    3. Oh! this thought in the midst of enjoyment will stay,
    Like a dead, leafless branch in the summer's bright ray;
    The beams of the warm sun play round it in vain;
    It may smile in his light, but it blooms not again.

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