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The Light of Other Days

[ Roud 13862 ; Alfred Bunn (1808-1870)]

The Light of Other Days is a song with words by Alfred Bunn (1808-1870) set to music by M.W. Balfe (1796?-1860), from their 1836 opera The Maid of Artois.

Eliza Carthy sang The Light of Other Days on her 2023 album Conversations We’ve Had Before. She noted:

I came across this as a broadside ballad when making a radio programme for the BBC at Chetham’s Library. I’ve never encountered writing or traditional music that deals with the issue of depression before, and this seems to express it perfectly. Another song demoed during the post-Big Machine period.

Lyrics

Eliza Carthy sings The Light of Other Days

The light of other days is faded,
And all its glories past.
For grief with heavy wing had shaded
The hopes too bright to last;
The world with morning’s mantle clouded,
Shines forth with purer rays!
The heart ne’er feels, in sorrow shrouded,
The light of other days.

The leaf which Autumn tempests wither,
The birds which then take wing,
When Winter’s winds are past, come hither
To welcome back the Spring;
The very ivy on the ruin
In gloom-full life displays;
The heart alone sees no renewing,
The light of other days.

The very ivy on the ruin
In gloom-full life displays;
The heart alone sees no renewing,
The light of other days.