This song is taken from Shakespeare's 'As You Like It.' The melody just seemed to fit.
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I was working on a Shakespearian set, and this song seemed to be the way to start it. The traditional melody was too flowery for my taste, so I wrote another one.
Other versions of this song also seem to take a lot of liberties with the text - repeating parts in order to fit some predesigned meter to which this song does not naturally fit. I used the text pretty straight from the play. There is a brief diversion of the meter at the end of the fourth verse... That’s my brief tribute to the traditional melody.
It was a lover and his lass,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
That o'er the green corn-field did pass
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring.
Between the acres of the rye,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino
These pretty country folks would lie,
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring.
This carol they began that hour,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,
How that a life was but a flower
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring.
And therefore take the present time,
With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino;
For love is crowned with the prime
In the spring time, the only pretty ring time,
When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding:
Sweet lovers love the spring.