Nature

Now is the month of maying

by Anonymous (Elizabethan songs) c. 1588–1630

From Lyrics from the Song-Books of the Elizabethan Age, ed. A. H. Bullen (London: Nimmo, 1891)

Nature

Now is the month of maying,
When merry lads are playing
Each with his bonny lass
Upon the greeny grass.
Fa la la!

The spring clad all in gladness
Doth laugh at winter's sadness,
And to the bagpipe's sound
The nymphs tread out their ground.
Fa la la!

Fie then, why sit we musing,
Youth's sweet delight refusing?
Say, dainty nymphs, and speak,
Shall we play barley-break.
Fa la la!

✦ ✦ ✦

From Thomas Morley's First Book of Ballets, 1595.

MLA

Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “Now is the month of maying.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/95/.

Chicago

Anonymous (Elizabethan songs). “Now is the month of maying.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/anonymous-elizabethan-songs/95/.

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