The Mummer's 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"