Living
About the maypole new, with glee and merriment
From Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age, ed. A. H. Bullen (London: Nimmo, 1891)
About the maypole new, with glee and merriment,
While as the bagpipe tooted it,
Thyrsis and Chloris fine together footed it:
And to the joyous instrument
Still they went to and fro, and finely flaunted it,
And then both met again and thus they chaunted it.
Fa la!
The shepherds and the nymphs them round enclosed had,
Wond'ring with what facility,
About they turn'd them in such strange agility;
And still when they unloosed had,
With words full of delight they gently kissed them,
And thus sweetly to sing they never missed them.
Fa la!
Codex Note
From Thomas Morley's First Book of Ballets to Five Voices, 1595.
Cite this poem
MLA
Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “About the maypole new, with glee and merriment.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/11/.
Chicago
Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “About the maypole new, with glee and merriment.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/11/.
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