The text of The Last Rose of Summer is an 1805 poem by the Irish poet Thomas Moore (1779 – 1852). The poem was given the music of another traditional: Aisling an Óigfhear, The Young Man’s Dream in English.
Scottish and Irish folk songs became fashionable with the classical composers in the nineteenth century. For example, we find The Last Rose of Summer as a theme with variations by Mauro Giuliani. Beethoven and Mendelssohn also used the tune.