Lyrics
(Folk song)
White coral bells upon a slender stalk,
Lilies of the valley dress my garden walk.
Oh, don’t you wish that you could hear them ring?
That will happen only when the fairies sing.
See also
- Subjects: colors / choral music
- Harmony: canons / chords I & V
- Meter: 4
- Scale: major
YouTube
- PDF of song with chords
- MIDI file
- Listen to the melody
9 thoughts on “White Coral Bells”
Thank you! I have loved this little tune since I was a child.
I too have loved this little tune since childhood. It pops into my head now and again many many decades later and still comforts me.
Love that!
Remembering that little song as one of the first ones I ever learned. I was probably 5 yr. or so, and sang the word “wall” instead of “walk”, as at that age, you sing what you think you hear. That was 72 years ago, so I’m thankful now to know the correct word. (And “walk does make sense to rhyme with “stalk”). I’ve always had it in my garden, as it reminds me of our family cottage (circa 1938) in Northern Ontario where you find remnants of it from former gardens now growing wild in the forest.
Just reading elsewhere a
Question as to why the song says “coral” bells (as in the color coral.
Singing this so very many times with my playmate neighbor as children, we always have thought it meant “choral” bells. As a chorus of bells.
My understanding is “white coral bells” is another name for lilies of the valley. It’s about taking a walk through the garden and admiring the flowers, wishing the bell-like flowers could ring. 🙂
What a lovely song! We sang it at Girl Scout camp, near Austin, TX, in the early 1970’s. It was wonderful to hear a lodge full of 100 girls accustomed to singing together, voices joined in this round.
I love that!
I learned it as “deck” my garden walk. I suppose it works both ways. I was enamored with this song as a child.