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

• We've been rambling all the night
• And some time of this day
• Now returning back again
• We bring a garland gay

• 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"

• We've been rambling all the night
• And some time of this day
• Now returning back again
• We bring a garland gay

• We've been rambling all the night
• And some time of this day
• Now returning back again
• We bring a garland gay