When You and I Were Young, Maggie

Visit BluegrassDaddy.com for practice MP3s, tablature, and a measure-by-measure lesson. "When You and I were Young, Maggie" is a poem by the Canadian school teacher George Washington Johnson from Hamilton, Ontario. Margaret "Maggie" Clark was his pupil. They fell in love and were engaged. Maggie contracted tuberculosis, and during a period of illness, George walked to the edge of the Niagara escarpment, overlooking what is now downtown Hamilton, and composed the poem. It was published in 1864 in a collection of his poems entitled Maple Leaves. They were married in 1864 but Maggie's health deteriorated and she died on May 12, 1865. James Austin Butterfield set the poem to music and it became popular all over the world.