The Mummers' Dance

When in the springtime of the year When the trees are crowned with leaves When the ash and oak, and the birch and yew Are dressed in ribbons fair When owls call the breathless moon In the blue veil of the night The shadows of the trees appear Amidst the lantern light We've been rambling all the night And some time of this day Now returning back again We bring a garland gay Who will go down to those shady groves And summon the shadows there And tie a ribbon on those sheltering arms In the springtime of the year The songs of birds seem to fill the wood That when the fiddler plays All their voices can be heard Long past their woodland days And so they linked their hands and danced Round in circles and in rows And so the journey of the night descends When all the shades are gone "A garland gay we bring you here And at your door we stand It is a sprout well budded out The work of our lord's hand"