Geraldine Farrar - Ben Bolt (1911)

Geraldine Farrar sings "Ben Bolt"

Victor 88283

January 23, 1911

Oh don't you remember sweet Alice, Ben Bolt?
Sweet Alice whose hair was so brown?
Who wept with delight when you gave her a smile
And trembled with fear at your frown?

In the old church yard in the valley, Ben Bolt,
In a corner obscure and alone,
They have fitted a slab of granite so gray
And sweet Alice lies under the stone.

And don't you remember the school, Ben Bolt,
And the master so kind and so true?
And the little nook by the clear running brook,
Where we gathered the flowers as they grew?

On the masters grave grows the grass, Ben Bolt,
And the running little brook is now dry,
And of all the friends who were schoolmates then,
There remain, Ben, but you and I.

Oh don't you remember sweet Alice, Ben Bolt?
Sweet Alice with hair so brown?
She wept with delight when you gave her a
smile and she trembled with fear at your frown.

"Ben Bolt" was originally a poem written by Thomas Dunn English and published in 1843.

Composer and musician Nelson Kneass added music in 1848, changing some words. It became one of the most popular songs of the 19th century.

Kneass died in 1868 while on tour with a theatrical troupe in Chillicothe, Missouri. He was buried in Edgewood cemetery.

"Ben Bolt" is the song that high-C Homer, a character in Damon Runyon's short story "Barbecue," was singing on amateur night at the Colonial Theater when he got hit in the throat by a turnip thrown by someone in the audience, dashing his hopes to be a singer and consigning him to a life as a third-rate peddler of phony tips on horse races.