Bloom Is on the Rye, The

DESCRIPTION: "My pretty Jane, my pretty Jane, Ah, never look so shy But meet me in the evening While the bloom is on the rye." If she will name the day, he will buy a ring. "The village bells shall ring... The summer nights are coming."
AUTHOR: See NOTES
EARLIEST DATE: 1868 (Waiting-for-a-Broadway-Stage-Songster)
KEYWORDS: love courting marriage
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Waiting-for-a-Broadway-Stage-Songster, pp. 18-19, "Pretty Jane" (1 text)
Little-Maggie-May-Songster, p. 26, "My Pretty Jane" (1 text)
Wandering-Refugee-Songster, p. 6, "Pretty Jane" (1 text)
Roud #25872
NOTES [170 words]: The Levy collection has two different sheet music versions of this. One, from 1834, says is is "Arranged & Partly Composed by James G. Maeder." The other, which is undated, has the words as by Edward Fitzball and the music by Henry R. Bishop. The lyrics are the same or nearly. The music is not identical but is very similar except that the Maeder version is in A, the Bishop version in B flat. Given that Bishop is an established composer and Maeder is no one, I'd be inclined to trust the attribution to Bishop, but I can't prove it.
According to the web site "The Works of James Joyce," this is used in Joyce's Ulysses -- "This song serves as the musical signature or leitmotiv for Leopold Bloom throughout the Sirens episode, the most musical chapter of the novel." (Checked July 29, 2025).
Keen-Love-Among-Der-Sweitzer-Songster, p. 64, has a song, "Pretty Jane," beginning "My pretty Jane, my pretty Jane, What makes you of me shy." It is not listed as a parody of this, but I feel confident that it is one. - RBW
Last updated in version 7.1
File: WBSS018

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