Interpret:

Patricia Kelly

Album:

Essential

There's a bower of roses
by Bendemeer's stream
and the nightingale sings
'round it all the day long.
In the time of my childhood
'twas sweet like a dream
to sit by the roses
and hear the bird's song.
That bower and its music
I never can forget
but of when alone
in the bloom of the year
I think, "Is the nightingale
singing there yet?"
Are the roses still bright
by the calm Bendemeer?"

No, the roses soon withered
that hung over the wave
but the blossoms were gathered
while freshly they shone
and the dew was distilled
on the flowers that gave
all the fragrance of summer - 
when summer is gone.
Thus memory draws from delight
ere it dies,
an essence that breathes
of it many a year.
Thus, bright to my soul
as 'twas then to my eyes,
is that bower on the banks
of the calm Bendemeer.

Are the roses still bright by the calm Bendemeer?