The Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics/Book 1/Poem 8
For other versions of this work, see It Was a Lover and His Lass.
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It was a lover and his lass With a hey and a ho, and a hey-nonino! That o’er the green cornfield did pass In the spring time, the only pretty ring time, When birds do sing hey ding a ding: Sweet lovers love the Spring.
Between the acres of the rye These pretty country folks would lie:
This carol they began that hour, How that life was but a flower:
And therefore take the present time With a hey and a ho and a hey-nonino! For love is crownéd with the prime In spring time, the only pretty ring time, When birds do sing hey ding a ding: Sweet lovers love the Spring. W. Shakespeare