The chapel of my childhood Is on the green hill-side, And in the long grass up the hill The graves of them that's died. My mother often took me When I was young and small; I'd kneel upon her skirts and count The Stations on the wall. Each evening in the Maytime The rosary we'd say: You'd hear beyant the chapel wall The corncrakes in the hay. The flowers round the altar, They made the air smell sweet, And cool the chapel floor would be To little childher's feet. It's scarce a day was passing But there I'd be a while: I mind the way the boys' bare feet Went patting up the aisle. The girls would come from lessons And kneel to say a prayer. You'd see the noonday sunshine caught In Mary Connor's hair.
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Authorship:
- by Winifred Mary Letts (1882 - 1972) [author's text not yet checked against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Charles Villiers Stanford, Sir (1852 - 1924), "The chapel on the hill", op. 139 no. 2 (1913), published 1913 [ voice and piano ], from A Fire of Turf, no. 2 [sung text checked 1 time]
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 136