The Merry Month Of May

By Edmund Spenser.

Is° not thilk° the merry month of May,
When love-lads masken in fresh array?
How falls it, then, we no merrier been,
Ylike as others, girt in gaudy green?
Our blanket liveries been all too sad        5
For thilk same season, when all is yclad
With pleasance°; the ground with grass, the woods
With green leaves, the bushes with blossoming buds.
Young folk now flocken in everywhere
To gather May buskets° and smelling brere°;        10
And home they hasten the posts to dight°,
And all the kirk°-pillars ere daylight,
With hawthorne buds and sweet eglantine°,
And garlands of roses and sops-in-wine.


Notes

Line 1: is. From the Shepherd’s Calendar: May: sung by Palinode and Piers. Mr. Quiller-Couch, in his Golden Pomp, says: “This is one of the few instances in which I have ventured to make a short extract from a long poem and present it as a separate lyric.” Mr. Couch’s action has proved so successful for his purpose I have followed his example here. [Braithwaite]

Line 1: thilk.  This, the same. [Glossary]

Line 7: pleasance. Pleasure.

Line 10: busket. Small bush; sprig; bouquet.

Line 10: brere. Briar. [Glossary]

Line 11: dight. Dress, adorn.

Line 12: kirk. Church. [Glossary]

Line 13: eglantine. The sweetbrier, a pink-flowered rose.