Fading Beauty

Simple Gifts
Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,
'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gain'd
To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,
To turn, turn will be out delight
'Till by turning, turning we come round right. *)

Old Farm House
Hausruck Region
Upper Austria
Photographed July 2008

*

"The lyrics and music of this Shaker dance song
were written in 1848 by Elder Joseph Brackett
at the Shaker community in Alfred, Maine.
It became a popular American folk tune
and was used by Aaron Copeland
in his Appalachian Spring symphony in 1955." *)

*) Sources:
History Department at the University of San Diego, and
The Aaron Copland Collection at the Library of Congress,
Washington, DC.