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seen the Lady of the May

Set in an arbour, on a holiday,

Built by the May-pole, where the jocund swains

Dance with the maidens to the bagpipe's strains,

When envious night commands them to be gone

Call for the merry youngsters one by one,

And for their well performance soon disposes:

To this a garland interwove with roses,

To that a carvèd hook or well-wrought scrip,

Gracing another with her cherry lip;

To one her garter, to another then

A handkerchief cast o'er and o'er again;

And none returneth empty that hath spent

His pains to fill their rural merriment.

(woo'd by May's delights) I have been borne

To take the kind air of a wistful morn

Near Tavy's voiceful stream (to whom I owe

More strains than from my pipe can ever flow),

Here have I heard a sweet bird never lin

To chide the river for his clam'rous din;

There seem'd another in his song to tell,

That what the fair stream did he liked well;

And going further heard another too,

All varying still in what the others do;

A little thence, a fourth with little pain

Conn'd all their lessons, and them sung again;

So numberless the songsters are that sing

In the sweet groves of the too-careless spring,

That I no sooner could the hearing lose

Of one of them, but straight another rose,