Nature

The Merry Month of May

by Thomas Dekker d. 1638?

From Lyrics from the Dramatists of the Elizabethan Age, ed. A. H. Bullen (London: Nimmo, 1889)

Nature

O, the merry month of May,
So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green!

O, and then did I unto my true love say,
Sweet Peg, thou shalt be my Summer's Queen.

Now the nightingale, the pretty nightingale,
The sweetest singer in all the forest quire,
Entreats thee, sweet Peggy, to hear thy true love's tale:
Lo, yonder she sitteth, her breast against a brier.

But O, I spy the cuckoo, the cuckoo, the cuckoo;
See where she sitteth; come away, my joy:
Come away, I prithee, I do not like the cuckoo
Should sing where my Peggy and I kiss and toy.

O, the month of May, the merry month of May,
So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green;
And then did I unto my true love say,
Sweet Peg, thou shalt be my Summer's Queen.

MLA

Dekker, Thomas. “The Merry Month of May.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/dekker/1/.

Chicago

Dekker, Thomas. “The Merry Month of May.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/dekker/1/.

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