Lilacs Bloomed Every Spring, Just like before… I loved that eerie song about the Soldier Boy by John Rutter. We sang it in our SATB choir in either Highschool or Junior High. I’ll type the full lyrics if I can remember them. But more than the song I like Lilacs! Here are seven pictures, including my favorite: the six-fingered mutant lilac!
Update: For anyone who found this page googling for the song Soldier Boy, I found a lovely recording of it here. And here is a sample of the recording — certainly the best I’ve come across!
I really don’t remember all the lyrics. Just the lilacs and the seven (really fourteen) years this poor maiden waited for her soldier tend to stick in my mind. And the fact that he seemed so enchanted by the war with its mighty cannons and golden bugles. And his fine coat for that matter. It gave me the chills.
If you’re interested you can google this much of the words and find the rest I’m sure. Taking out the parts that repeat for the sake of the melody:
“Soldier Boy…
Where are you going to in your coat so fine?
“I am riding off to war where the mighty cannons roar;
where the golden bugel shines…
Oh, Lady Fair, be mine.
“Soldier Boy…
When will you come again in your coat so fine?
“When the leaves a green again; when the lilacs bloom again;
When there is an end to war
Then I will come once more.”
“Seven Times and seven more,
leaves turned to green again
Lilacs bloomed every spring,
just like before
But there was no end to war… ”
(I forget the lyrics here – probably because the boys sang this part. Poor little highschool tenors. Someday I’d like to try choir again to see what it’s like to sing with men, but I’ll need to work on my voice first)
“Still she waited just the same,
but no one ever came.”
Plenty of spooky ooooo-ing follows. I’m not making fun though. The song really is spooky. All the brilliance and hope of youth – twice over lost to fighting. How many thousands of times do you suppose has this happened in the history of our world? And how many times more will it happen?
More lilac snaps:
This little mutant lilac flower has six petals instead of the typical four or rare five. Yes, I embrace my nerd-dom, but I know you all love me just the same or you wouldn’t be here. This blossom is the one that inspired me to take these pictures in the first place- I’d never seen anything but a double-blossomed lilac have more than four petals. Then I noticed quite a few on this odd tree had five. But six. I still think that’s special.
Legend of Velda 
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