'Tis the last rose of summer, Left blooming all alone, All her lovely companions Are faded and gone. No flower of her kindred, No rose bud is nigh, To reflect back her blushes, Or give sigh for sigh.
I'll not leave thee, thou lone one, To pine on the stem; Since the lovely are sleeping, Go sleep thou with them; 'Thus kindly I scatter Thy leaves o'er the bed Where thy mates of the garden Lie scentless and dead.
So soon may I follow When friendships decay, And from love's shining circle The gems drop away! When true hearts lie withered And fond ones are flown Oh! who would inhabit This bleak world alone?
The Last Rose of Summer is a poem by Irish poet Thomas Moore, who was a friend of Byron and Shelley. Moore wrote it in 1805 while at Jenkinstown Park in County Kilkenny, Ireland. Sir John Stevenson set the poem to its widely-known melody, and this was published in a collection of Moore's work called Irish Melodies (1807–34). In Ireland, it is claimed that the melody was composed by George Alexander Osborne, a composer from Limerick City.
Ludwig Van Beethoven composed Theme and Three variations for flute and piano, Op 105, based on the song late in his life.Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy composed a Fantasia in E major, Op. 15, based on the song (1827?, publ. London, 1830). Friedrich von Flotow uses the song in his opera "Martha," premiered in 1847 in Vienna. It is a favorite air ("Letzte Rose") of the character Lady Harriet. The interpolation works, and indeed the song helped popularize the opera. (According to the 1954 Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, the opera grew from an 1844 ballet-pantomime, "Lady Henriette," for which Flotow wrote the music to Act One. Burgmuller and Deldevez wrote the rest of the music; "Lady Henriette" was produced in Paris.)
