The Ballad of John Kempe Part 1

Hear this ballad set to music and played by the Penland Phezants (and with explanatory notes) here

"Upon the Ouse's stinking beach
I stand and look across,
Amid the waste, and West Lynn seems
The Eden that we've lost.

"I take the ferry there, now Lynn's
Jerusalem or Rome,
Those Walsinghams she'll chase to find
She's just as far from home.

"The grass is always greener on
The other side," I say.
She says, "in heaven it really is
This green hill far away."

With a bump, I bring her back to Earth,
"You’re a mother not that maid
Who sang the Song of Songs to kings,
Our class must toil and trade."

"You great lump, John, in lechery,
You waste my church-spire dreams;
Trade children, chores and chamber pots
For heaven's shining greens."

"The grass is always greener on
The other side," I say.
She says, "in heaven it really is
This green hill far away."

Lyric © Gareth Calway 2017

Remarkable women in a man's world
http://garethcalway.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/julian-and-margery.html

http://garethcalway.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/margery-kempe-wife-of-lynns-tale-part-2.html


Margery of Lynn and the Lollards
http://garethcalway.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/short-panel-lollardy-began-in-14th.html

http://garethcalway.blogspot.co.uk/2015/01/margery-kempe-wife-of-lynns-tale-lynn.html