Geri wrote looking for help with a childhood song from England:
As a child in the UK (England) we used to sing a song at school (infant or juniors) that I thought started like this:
Summer has come from the sunny lands,
Summer is here again,
Bringing the birdies (not sure of this line)
In every woodland lane
Chirruping, chirruping high and low.*****
That is all I can remember.
This song has haunted me for years and I am now 65, it would be an old song from the late 40’s to the 50’s. I have searched and searched but found nothing I am not sure I have all the word’s down correctly but it does go something like that.
Can anyone help me please.
Thank you.
Geri
If anyone can help with this song, please let us know in the comments below.
Thanks in advance!
Mama Lisa
UPDATE: We received some lyrics to this song in the comments below along with the notes so we could create a midi tune of Summer has come from the sunny lands. Thanks to Christopher Hall for the notes and Monique Palomares of the French and Spanish version of Mama Lisa’s World for creating the midi!
Now you can also hear an mp3 of Sunny has come from the sunny land as played on the piano by Julie Newcombe. Thanks Julie!
This article was posted on Thursday, March 26th, 2009 at 8:08 pm and is filed under British Children's Songs, Children's Songs, Countries & Cultures, England, English, English Children's Songs, Holidays Around the World, Languages, Mama Lisa, Questions, Readers Questions, United Kingdom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
91 Responses to “Can Anyone Help with a Song with the Line, “Summer Has Come from the Sunny Lands”?”
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December 2nd, 2011 at 7:55 am
We used to sing Summer Has Come at Kells Lane Infants School in Gateshead in the early 70’s. I could only remember the first couple of lines so a big thanks to everyone for the lyrics. It is amazing how many of us have been after the lyrics for decades!
December 19th, 2011 at 4:35 am
All the versions above seem slightly different. Here’s the one I remember from Derby St Primary back in the 60’s and yes – I too love this old song. I happen to have a pretty strong memory for lyrics so have managed to retain this song over the years. I’m happy I will be able to teach it to my grandkids one day.
Summer has come from the sunny land
Summer is here again
Bringing her birdies to sing their songs
In every wood and lane
Chirruping Chirruping loud and sweet
How did you learn to sing?
Who was it taught you the way to fly
And gave you each tiny wing?
We have a Father a birdie said
Loving and kind and true
He who has taught us the way to live
Now tell other children too
Thank you dear birdie for telling me
I am so glad to know
Now when I’m asked I can always say
A little bird told me so.
February 22nd, 2012 at 10:00 pm
Thanks everyone! This little hymn is one of the very first I learnt at primary school in the early 1960’s in Hockley, Essex. It’s great to have all the verses again after such a long time. Another was, “Praise Him praise Him, all the little children”!
March 27th, 2012 at 10:39 am
I am so glad I found this link I sand ol Mr Noah in school at a festival andour class won the trophy. I sang it to my children and now my grandchildren, but alas i could not remember the last 2 verses thanks sooo much. I cant stop singing it now.
R Grant
March 30th, 2012 at 4:09 pm
So glad to have found this link ,I too have always remembered and loved this litle tune from infant school 52 years ago ,also Praise Him……lovely memories,thankyou
May 3rd, 2012 at 12:47 am
I am trying to find a choir on you tube singing my school song Glad Hearts Adventuring .This was also the Girl Guide Hymn .
Thank you for your help.
Sallie from North Carolina.
May 3rd, 2012 at 12:50 am
My twin sister and I loved Summer Has come…
May 28th, 2012 at 5:36 am
The version that I was taught in the mid 50’s was the same from both Newcastle where my father was born and the Vale of Evesham where my mother was born. It is slightly different the the other versions printed.
Summer has come from the sunny land
Summer is here again
Bringing its birdies to sing their songs
In every wood and lane
Chirruping chirruping loud and sweet
High in the rocking trees
Dear little birdies I think you sing
The prettiest songs for me
But I should very much like to know
How did you learn to sing
Who was it taught you the way to fly
And gave you each tiny wing
We have a father the birdie said
Who is loving , kind and true
It was he who has taught us the way to fly
And bring these songs to you
Thank you dear birdie for telling me
I am so proud to know
Now when I’m asked I can always say
A little bird told me so
June 2nd, 2012 at 11:39 pm
I used to attend a Methodist School in York, England in the early 1950’s. I remember really liking the song “Little Lamb Who Made Thee” but cannot find anywhere the music that the song was set to. I have learned that there are many renditions out there but none I have found is the music that I remember. Any suggestions on how to find it? I now live in the US.
June 29th, 2012 at 5:16 am
I too have sung ‘Summer has come” over the years since we learned it at Love Lane Primary School Rayleigh, Essex…love that song…loved Primary school, too always following the seasons with our posters and nature tables :) Barb Esmond i have long had the same problem with the original tune to “oh Little Town of Bethlehem” no-one sings it to the tune i remember as a child.
Thanks MamaLisa for getting the ball rolling and sharing ur site.
August 27th, 2012 at 3:11 pm
I have been wondering for a long time about “Summer has come……..” & it was in my mind tonight so I googled the first line & it led me to this sight – thank you all – I am 76 & a bit & we used to sing it in the ‘Wincheap street primary school Canterbury; in 1940’s before the school was bombed out in the devastation of the Canterbury blitz later when I lost quite a few friends then, devastating when you are only 5ish. Thank you once again everybody from an ‘oldie’…….
April 7th, 2013 at 12:58 pm
Sue Knight’s recollection of “Old Mr Noah” is almost word-perfect. The last word of the penultimate line is, as she correctly writes, “you”. I sang this song as a member of the boys’ choir of The Park Grammar School, Swindon, in 1963, and have never forgotten the words or the tune.
Thanks for the memory, Sue!
June 26th, 2013 at 4:59 pm
Thanks to this web-site, my sister Julie Newcombe and Derek Walmsley for helping me locate the songbook, I now teach my Pre-school children ‘Summer has come from the Sunny lands’ every summer and they love it. So nice to hear sung again!
July 31st, 2013 at 4:02 pm
I am so glad I have found this web site, The words of Summer has come to the Sunny Lands brought such happy memories back from schooldays at Rhodes Infant School, Middleton….Thanks ever so much I could not remember the words but now I have been singing it…..Thanks
August 21st, 2013 at 9:57 pm
My mother used to sing a slightly different version
Summer has come from the sunny lands
Summer is here again
Bringing her birdies to laugh and sing
And think of the children too
Once a while walking a bird I spied high in the apple tree
chirruping chirruping loud and sweet a pretty song for me
Dear little birdie I asked of him
Who ho was taught you to laugh and sing and think of the children too
We have a father the birdie said loving and kind and good he who hath taught us to laugh and sing and think of the children too
Thank you dear birdie for telling me
Now when I’m asked I can always say a little bird told me so
August 27th, 2013 at 11:59 pm
Thank you for , “Summer has come. ” I never realised it was a hymn by Florence Hoatson. She also wrote,
” Hands together, softly so,
Little eyes shut tight.
Father , just before we go,
Hear our prayer tonight”.
Does anyone remember that one?
January 9th, 2014 at 4:09 pm
Thank you so much for the words of this little song “summer has come from the sunny land”! I’ve been wondering for years what they were and nobody seemed to have heard of it. I used to say, “chirrupy, chirrupy loud and sweet,” but maybe I misheard the teacher (Cumberland, 1950s).
Has anyone heard of a little poem that starts, “wheat is a sturdy soldier”?
June 14th, 2014 at 9:33 pm
Here’s a recording of Summer has come from the sunny land on Virtual Theatre Organ. Enjoy. It has the words also so you can join in….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-QHLI3_53M&feature=youtu.be
September 26th, 2014 at 4:16 pm
I found this site while searching online for a copy of Child Songs by Carey Bonner. What a trip down memory lane to my schooldays at Wellgate Primary, Rotherham in the 1950s. I sang and loved both ‘Summer has come from the sunny lands’ and ‘Hands together, softly so’. Does anyone remember the following?
Thank you for the world so sweet
Thank you for the food we eat
Thank you for the birds that sing
Thank you, God, for everything
I think we usually sang it at the end of morning school, as a form of grace before lunch!
June 3rd, 2015 at 8:40 pm
This is how I was taught it and sang it to my children:
Summer has come from the sunny land
Summer is here to stay
Bringing its birdies to sing their songs
In every wood and lane
Tell me dear birdie I’d like to know
Who was it taught you to sing
Who was it taught you the way to fly
And gave you each tiny wing
We have a father the birdie said
Loving and kind and true
Tis he who has taught us the way to fly
He’ll think of the children too
Thank you dear birdie for telling me
I am so glad to know
Now when I’m asked I can always say
A little bird told me so.
June 3rd, 2015 at 8:59 pm
I have a copy of the original hymn book with the copy of the words and music in it (thanks to Derek Walmsley – see earlier post above May 2009). The second verse is missing in the above words. If you look at Christopher Hall’s post Jan 2010, the full words are there as per the original Carey Bonner hymn book.
June 4th, 2015 at 7:50 pm
How wonderful to see all the words to this song that I sang at 4 years old in school, but particularly reminds me of my mother, who used to sing it with me.
Early Sunday School songs seem to stay in the back of ones memory. Anyone sing this one:
Glad that I live am I
That the sky is blue
Glad for the country lanes and the fall of dew
After the sun the rain
After the rain the sun
This is the way of life till the work be done
All we that live and breathe
Be we low or high
Is to see that we grow nearer the sky.
June 24th, 2015 at 10:04 am
Yes, Edwina, I did!! :-)
I remember singing both ‘Summer has come…’ and ‘Glad that I live am I’ (I remember singing ‘this is the way of life since the earth begun’…but i’ve no idea if I was right!!)- both of these songs affect me amazingly strongly even to this day (sung them at infant school in the late 1970s, Thames Ditton, Surrey). What inspired song and melody writers these people were that they left such an impression on all of us!!….
August 31st, 2015 at 6:29 pm
I went to Holly Hall infants school, dudley,and we sang this song in1937 when i was 5yrs. old. i believe there were three verses but am not sure of the third one.
Summer has come from the sunny land,
summer is here again,
bringing its birdies to sing their song,
in every wood and lane.
We have a father the birdies said,
loving and kind and true.
he who has taught us the way to fly
will think of the children too.
I believe the other verse starts “chirrupe,chirrupe, loud and clear,high in a rocking tree, but can’t be sure. Best wishes, Albert.
January 23rd, 2016 at 10:07 pm
I remember singing these songs at Stag Lane Primary School 1960’s, I did not like the music teacher, but loved singing the songs especially The Noah Song
March 27th, 2016 at 7:48 am
This was my favourite song as a child. I loved the idea of a little bird talking to me.
The words I remember are:
Summer has come from the sunny lands
Summer is here again
Bringing the birdies to sing their song
In every wood & lane
Chirruping, chirruping loud & sweet
High in the rocking tree
Dear little birdies I think you sing
The prettiest song for me
But I should very much like to know
How did you learn to sing?
Who was it taught you the way to fly
And gave you each tiny wing?
We have a father the birdies sang
Loving & kind & true
He who has taught us to sing & fly
He cares for his children too
Thank you dear birdies for telling me
I am so glad to know
Now when I’m asked I can always say
A little bird told me so….
April 25th, 2016 at 2:48 pm
Another song we used to sing in the fifties:
Picking up pawpaws, put them in the basket,
Picking up pawpaws, put them in the basket,
Picking up pawpaws, put them in the basket,
Way down yonder in the pawpaw patch.
I can’t remember any more verses but we had to mime the actions.
Also:
Little bird, I have heard,
What a merry song you sing.
Soaring high to the sky
On your tiny wing.
Jesus little ones are we
And he loves us you and me …
Can’t remember the rest, sadly.
April 29th, 2016 at 2:29 pm
Hi, I have searched for this song for many years,perhaps someone here can help? I know every word but cannot get music to it. It was called Spring Breezes and was in a primary school songbook the music was supposedly by tchaikovsky (sp?) to an old folk song (possibly hungarian).
Spring winds are blowing, Green leaves are growing, Clusters of buds are tossed on the wind. Dark streams are splashing, bounding and dashing, seaward they make their way.
:Listen my mournful heart and be still, soon dies the sound of horns on the hill. Thrushes are calling, white petals falling, sorrow is sweet today:
The bit between the colons was repeated.
the 1970’s songbook it was in had another song called The Molecatcher which started
A molecatcher I
for that is my trade…
I would love to have a copy of the music and lyrics to Spring Breezes
if anyone can help pkease let me know, thank you so much. sunny.
May 8th, 2016 at 11:38 am
Every Spring and Summer I always think of my favourite assembly song from Manor Road Primary in Nantwich during the 1960s. It was the cheeriest by far, however I could only remember the first 2 lines of Summer has come from the sunny land and think about it every year.
I have just found the complete song from this blog and it has finally put my mind at rest. I am learning calligraphy, so when I’m proficient I aim to write this song out and frame it. I will probably be singing it all day now. Thankyou!!!!! :)
June 2nd, 2016 at 3:08 am
After doing research I found that all of England’s schools sang the same songs here’s me thinking Glad Hearts Adventuring was my Secondary Moderns very own song.It originated as a Girl Guides song here in the States.
I recall singing at the end of everyday in the infants/junior school Now The Day Is Over.
My twin sister and I have sung all of our lives [71]starting with the Sunday School Anniversary in 1949 we sang a duo called Sing a little song for Jesus.We sang in an award winning choir at the Secondary level and have harmonized ever since.We dare sing anywhere.
July 10th, 2016 at 10:25 am
This was my favourite song in primary school, we sang it in the early 70s and I knew that the summer holidays were coming soon. I’m wondering when they stopped singing these sorts of songs in school assemblies in the Uk
August 10th, 2016 at 12:31 pm
I’m trying to find the right title, composer & lyrics to a very old song about Noah’s Arc. The first lines are: Children turn to page 52, Pay attention while I read to you, Ah Noah & the Arc is the lesson for today so follow me when I say, Didn’t it rain, children? Rain all the time, Well didn’t it rain and rain ane rain,
December 28th, 2017 at 1:04 pm
So glad to hear all you kind folk writing this down, I didn’t remember much of this song only 3 lines from my childhood, i’m 68 and learnd this at Park Lane infants school about 1955, wonderful, thank you.
February 26th, 2018 at 11:51 pm
In response to the request for the last lines of ‘Little bird, I have heard…’ this is what we sang in the 1950’s…
“Little bird, I have heard,
What a merry song you sing.
Soaring high to the sky
On your tiny wing.
Jesus’ little ones are we
And he loves us you and me
As we share in his care
Happy we must be.”
I take it that the ‘must’ in the last line is not a commandment but a statement that we will definitely be happy!
April 15th, 2018 at 1:22 pm
To Sunny: Spring winds are blowing, Green leaves are growing, Clusters of buds are tossed on the wind. Dark streams are splashing, bounding and dashing, seaward they make their way.
:Listen my mournful heart and be still, soon dies the sound of horns on the hill. Thrushes are calling, white petals falling, sorrow is sweet today
The oringinal is a Swedish folk song called “Vårvindar friskar”. Search on google or spotify and you will find many recordings and the full text (in swedish!)
April 15th, 2018 at 2:57 pm
Mama Lisa’s World has the Swedish folk song called “Vårvindar friskar” with the lyrics, a translation and some videos!
December 16th, 2019 at 3:22 pm
Richard Duncumb, I am so sorry that I am so very late returning to this site to check for replies, life gets in the way sometimes. Thank you Richard! That is the very song with the music I remember. The English translation seems to have different lyrics, but similar meaning. This means the world to me, Thank you again, I have looked for this most of my adult life. May you receive good karma in return for your kindness.
Regards, Sunny
February 19th, 2020 at 6:55 pm
I’ve been thinking about this song a lot in recent months. The opening line “Summer has come from the sunny lands – summer its here again, bringing her birdies” etc… I learned it at Loddon primary school in Norfolk during the mid-sixties, in the ‘Singing Together’ radio programmes we would assemble to listen to and sing along with – I loved it – the only bit of school I actually enjoyed!
For the past 38 years we’ve had swallows nesting in our stables, and anyone who knows anything about swallows will know of their epic migration route to and from South Africa, during which they are caught in glue traps and nets (Nigeria) for eating, shot at (Gibraltar strip) not to mention crossing the Sahara desert….
This song and swallows have a very special place in my heart.
August 16th, 2020 at 10:48 pm
So pleased to find many others like me love and are passing on the song Summer has come from the sunny lands and it is good to have my memory of the words confirmed. I am now wondering (hoping) someone might be able to help with a child’s poem I have been searching for. It compares a small rain cloud to a child needing the loo and I’m trying to remember where I found it. From memory I think it goes like this, but I’m not sure I have the words completely correct. If possible I’d also like to know the name of the author of this short verse.
There once was a cloud who wanted to rain
It’s cumulus mother said
“ What – not again!
It’s supposed to be summer, you’ll just have to wait.”
The little cloud answered
“ I can’t it’s too late!
I’m so full I’m bursting- I can’t keep it in.”
And that’s why our cricket match couldn’t begin.
July 22nd, 2021 at 8:48 pm
Thank you very much for these wonderful memories of this innocent childhood song. Christopher Hall in particular was spot on with my own struggling memory of at least 60 years ago at Sunday School. Singing the Bird’s Solo must have been a very important moment in your childhood. Thank you for that.
Sadly, it seems children aren’t allowed to know about God in school these days. Isn’t it worrying for children to have only their harassed parents and teachers to point the way forward? What do you think about this growing concern of mine? All thoughts welcome. Christina
June 10th, 2023 at 6:19 pm
I remember singing this sweet song at Holt House Infants School in Sheffield in the early 1960s. I’ve been singing this song to myself (in my head) all morning since I heard some birds chirruping nearby. There was just one line I couldn’t remember. So glad to know it is “Will think of the children too”.