by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936)
On the idle hill of summer
Language: English
On the idle hill of summer, Sleepy with the flow of streams, Far I hear the steady drummer Drumming like a noise in dreams. Far and near and low and louder, On the roads of earth go by, Dear to friends and food for powder, Soldiers marching, all to die. East and west on fields forgotten Bleach the bones of comrades slain, Lovely lads and dead and rotten; None that go return again. Far the calling bugles hollo, High the screaming fife replies, Gay the files of scarlet follow: Woman bore me, I will rise.
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Text Authorship:
- by Alfred Edward Housman (1859 - 1936), no title, appears in A Shropshire Lad, no. 35, first published 1896 [author's text checked 1 time 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 Robert Ainsworth , "On the idle hill of summer", published 1939 [ voice and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
- by Geoffrey Allen (b. 1927), "On the idle hill of summer ", op. 10 no. 5 (1995) [ tenor and piano ], from Bredon Hill : eight songs for tenor voice and piano to poems of A. E. Housman, no. 5 [sung text not yet checked]
- by Joseph W. Baber (b. 1937), "On the idle hill of summer", op. 12 no. ? [ high voice and piano ], from Songs from English Poets [sung text not yet checked]
- by George Sainton Kaye Butterworth (1885 - 1916), "On the idle hill of summer", published 1912 [ voice and piano ], from Bredon Hill and other songs, no. 4 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Alfred Redgrave Cripps (1882 - 1950), "On the idle hill of summer", published <<1940 [ voice and piano ], from Nine "Shropshire Lad" Songs [sung text not yet checked]
- by Ivor (Bertie) Gurney (1890 - 1937), "On the idle hill of summer", 1919, published 1923 [ tenor, string quartet, and piano ], from Ludlow and Teme, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Humphrey Searle (1915 - 1982), "March past", published 1948 [ medium male voice and piano ], from Two Songs [sung text not yet checked]
- by Arthur Somervell, Sir (1863 - 1937), "On the idle hill of summer", 1904, published 1904 [ voice and piano ], from A Shropshire Lad, no. 6 [sung text checked 1 time]
- by John Ramsden Williamson (1929 - 2015), "On the idle hill of summer" [ baritone and piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 16
Word count: 95