I was in your presence for an hour or so

Or was it a day? I truly don't know.

Where the sun never set, where the trees hung low

By that soft and shining sea.

Did you respect me for what I did

Or for what I didn't do, or for keeping it hid?

Did I lose my mind when I tried to get rid

Of everything you see?

In the summertime, ah in the summertime,

In the summertime when you were with me.

I got the heart and you got the blood,

We cut through iron and we cut through mud.

Then came the warnin' that was before the flood

That set everybody free.

Fools they made a mock of sin,

Our loyalty they tried to win

But you were closer to me than my next of kin

When they didn't want to know or see.

In the summertime, ah in the summertime,

In the summertime when you were with me.

Strangers, they meddled in our affairs,

Poverty and shame was theirs.

But all that sufferin' was not to be compared

With the glory that is to be.

And I'm still carrying the gift you gave,

It's a part of me now, it's been cherished and saved,

It'll be with me unto the grave

And then unto eternity.

In the summertime, ah in the summertime,

In the summertime when you were with me.