The Seasons

Come all you lads and lasses, I'd have you give attention

To these few lines I'm about to write here

Tis of the four seasons of the year that I shall mention

The beauty of all things doth appear

And now you are young and all in your prosperity

Come cheer up your hearts and revive like the spring

Join off in pairs like the birds in February

That St. Valentine's Day it forth do bring

Then cometh Spring, which all the land doth nourish

The fields are beginning to be decked with green

The trees put forth their buds and the blossoms they do flourish

And the tender blades of corn on the earth are seen

Don't you see the little lambs by the dams a-playing?

The cuckoo is singing in the shady grove

The flowers they are springing, the maids they go a-Maying

In love all hearts seem now to move.

Next cometh Autumn with the sun so hot and piercing

The sportsman goes forth with his dog and his gun

To fetch down the woodcock, the partridge and the pheasant

For health and for profit as well as for fun

Behold, with loaded apple trees the farmer is befriended

They will full up his casks that have long laid dry

All nature seems to weary now, her task is nearly ended

And more of the seasons will come by and by.

When night comes on with song and tale we pass the wintry hours

By keeping up a cheerful heart we hope for better days

We tend the cattle, sow the seed, give work unto the ploughers

With patience wait till winter yields before the sun's fair rays

And so the world goes round and round, and every time and season

With pleasure and with profit crowns the passage of the year

And so with every time of life, to him who acts with reason

The beauty of all things doth appear.