First World War.com - Vintage Audio - In Summertime On Bredon

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Alfred Housman, author of "In Summertime on Bredon" Vintage Audio: In Summertime On Bredon
Updated - Sunday, 15 December, 2002

Performed as something of a sentimental favourite, In Summertime on Bredon comprised a poem written by A. E. Housman in 1896 and which formed part of his famous work A Shropshire Lad, which itself gained in popularity during the First World War. Reproduced below are the words to the poem.

Click here to listen to the poem put to music (by Graham Peel in 1911) and performed by Gervase Elwes in 1916 (MP3 format 408kb).

In Summertime on Bredon

In summertime on Bredon
The bells they sound so clear;
Round both the shires they ring them
In steeples far and near,
A happy noise to hear.

Here of a Sunday morning
My love and I would lie,
And see the coloured counties,
And hear the larks so high
About us in the sky.

The bells would ring to call her
In valleys miles away;
"Come all to church, good people;
Good people come and pray."
But here my love would stay.

And I would turn and answer
Among the springing thyme,
"Oh, peal upon our wedding,
And we will hear the chime,
And come to church in time."

But when the snows at Christmas
On Bredon top were strown,
My love rose up so early
And stole out unbeknown
And went to church alone.

They tolled the one bell only,
Groom there was none to see,
The mourners followed after,
And so to church went she,
And would not wait for me.

The bells they sound on Bredon,
And still the steeples hum,
"Come all to church, good people." -
O noisy bells, be dumb;
I hear you, I will come.

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