Come all you lads and lasses, I'd have you give attention
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To these few lines I'm about to write here,
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'Tis of the four seasons of the year that I shall mention,
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The beauty of all things doth appear.
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And now you are young and all in your prosperity,
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Come cheer up your hearts and revive like the spring
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Join off in pairs like the birds in February
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That St. Valentine's Day it forth do bring.
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Then cometh Spring, which all the land doth nourish;
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The fields are beginning to be decked with green,
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The trees put forth their buds and the blossoms they do flourish,
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And the tender blades of corn on the earth are to be seen.
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Don't you see the little lambs by the dams a-playing?
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The cuckoo is singing in the shady grove.
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The flowers they are springing, the maids they go a-Maying,
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In love all hearts seem now to move.
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Next cometh Autumn with the sun so hot and piercing;
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The sportsman goes forth with his dog and his gun
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To fetch down the woodcock, the partridge and the pheasant,
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For health and for profit as well as for fun.
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Behold, with loaded apple-trees the farmer is befriended,
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They will fill up his casks that have long laid dry.
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All nature seems to weary now, her task is nearly ended,
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And more of the seasons will come by and by.
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When night comes on with song and tale we pass the wintry hours;
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By keeping up a cheerful heart we hope for better days.
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We tend the cattle, sow the seed, give work unto the ploughers,
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With patience wait till winter yields before the sun's fair rays.
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And so the world goes round and round, and every time and season
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With pleasure and with profit crowns the passage of the year,
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And so through every time of life, to him who acts with reason,
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The beauty of all things doth appear.
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The Season
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| Loreena McKennitt |
