Forty Years On Original version (Verses 2 & 3 not often used. New version below) 1. Forty years on when afar and asunder Parted are those who are singing today When you look back and forgetfully wonder What you were like in your work and your play. Then it may be there will often come o'er you Glimpses of notes like the catch of a song, Visions of boyhood shall float them before you, Echoes of dreamland shall bear them along. Chorus Follow up! Follow up! Follow up! Follow up! Follow up! Till the field rings again and again With the tramp of the twenty two men Follow up! Follow up! 2. Routes and discomfitures, rushes and rallies, Bases attempted, and rescued, and won, Strife without anger, and art without malice - How will it seem to you, forty years on? Then you will say, not a feverish minute Strained the weak heart and the wavering knee, Never the battle raged hottest, but in it, Neither the last nor the faintest were we! Follow up! ... 3. O the great days, in the distance enchanted, Days of fresh air, in the rain and sun, How we rejoiced as we struggled and panted - Hardly believable, forty years on! How we discoursed of them, one with another, Auguring triumph, or balancing fate, Loved the ally with the heart of a brother, Hated the foe with a playing at hate! Follow up! ... 4. Forty years on, growing older and older Shorter in wind as in memory long, Feeble of foot, and rheumatic of shoulder, What will it help you that once you were strong? God gives us bases to guard or beleaguer, Games to play out, whether earnest or fun; Fights for the fearless, and goals for the eager, Twenty, and thirty, and forty years on! |
Colyton Grammar School Song |
back to old coly |
updated 13 Jan 2008 |
FORTY YEARS ON (New version) 1.Forty years on when afar and asunder Parted are those who are singing today, When you look back and forgetfully wonder What you were like in your work and your play. Then it may be, there will often come o'er you Glimpses of notes like the catch of a song, Visions of childhood shall float them before you Echoes of dreamland shall bear them along. Follow up! Follow up! Follow up! Follow up! Follow up! Let the bell ring again and again To remember the youth you were then Follow up! Follow up! 2.Forty years on, now with dreams of returning The scent of the spring lingers long in the air. The friendship of hope and the lightness of learning, The breeze of the roses transporting you there. Peace well-remembered and laughter still with you, Carols and quietness and quarrels now long-gone. Corridors ring - will their memory outlive you, Forty, or even five hundred years on. Follow up! Follow up! Follow up! Follow up! Follow up! Let the bell ring again and again To remember the youth you were then Follow up! Follow up! |