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Traditional English, arranged by Loreena McKennitt |
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Come all you lads and lasses, |
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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 |
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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, |
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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, |
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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, |
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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 |
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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, |
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give work unto the ploughers, |
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With patience wait till winter yields |
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before the sun's fair rays. |
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And so the world goes round and round, |
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and every time and season |
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With pleasure and with profit |
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crowns the passage of the year, |
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And so through every time of life, |
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to him who acts with reason, |
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The beauty of all things doth appear. |
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END |