by John Masefield (1878 - 1967)
It's pleasant in Holy Mary
Language: English
It's pleasant in Holy Mary By San Marie lagoon, The bells they chime and jingle From dawn to afternoon. They rhyme and chime and mingle, They pulse and boom and beat, And the laughing bells are gentle And the mournful bells are sweet. Oh, who are the men that ring them, The bells of San Marie, Oh, who but the sonsie seamen Come in from over sea. And merrily in the belfries They rock and sway and hale, And send the bells a-jangle, And down the lusty ale. It's pleasant in Holy Mary To hear the beaten bells Come booming into music, Which throbs, and clangs, and swells. From sunset till the daybreak, From dawn to afternoon, In port of Holy Mary On San Marie Lagoon.
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Text Authorship:
- by John Masefield (1878 - 1967), "St. Mary's Bells", appears in Ballads, first published 1903 [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 John (Nicholson) Ireland (1879 - 1962), "The bells of San Marie", 1918, published 1919 [ medium voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Francis Alan Jackson (b. 1917), "St. Mary's Bells", published 1950 [ SSA chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Frederick John Easthope Martin (1882 - 1925), "St. Mary's Bells", published 1919 [ medium voice and piano ], from Five Poems by John Masefield [sung text not yet checked]
- by John Theodore Livingston Raynor (1909 - 1970), "St. Mary's Bells", op. 39 (1944) [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Hugh Stevenson Roberton, Sir (1874 - 1952), "St. Mary's Bells", published 1942 [ mixed chorus a cappella ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Harold Hinchcliffe Sykes , "St. Mary's Bells", published <<1951 [ unison chorus and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this page: Ted Perry
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 126