The Merry Month of May (poem)

The Merry Month of May is a poem by Thomas Dekker (c. 1572–1632), an English Elizabethan dramatist and pamphleteer. 'The Merry Month of May' was a part of Dekker's play, The Shoemaker's Holiday, first performed in 1599.

The poem is included within Act 3 Scene V of the play. In a scene set in a "french hood", where people are performing for some of the major characters of the play.[1] Little is known about the poem, other than its publication in The Shoemaker's Holiday.

Text

O, the month of May, the merry month of May,
So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green!
O,and then did I unto my true love say,
Sweet Peg, thou shalt be my Summer's Queen.

Now the nightingale, the pretty nightingale,
The sweetest singer in all the forest quire,
Entreats thee, sweet Peggy, to hear thy true love's tale:
Lo, yonder she sitteth, her breast against a brier.

But O, I spy the cuckoo, the cuckoo, the cuckoo;
See where she sitteth; come away, my joy:
Come away, I prithee, I do not like the cuckoo
Should sing where my Peggy and I kiss and toy.

O, the month of May, the merry month of May,
So frolic, so gay, and so green, so green, so green;
And then did I unto my true love say,
Sweet Peg, thhu shalt be my Summer's Queen.

References

  1. ↑ "Thomas Dekker The Shoemaker's Holiday". Bartleby.com. Bartleby. Retrieved 21 March 2017.


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