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| MAY-DAY! delightful day! | |
| Bright colours play the value along. | |
| Now wakes at morning’s slender ray | |
| Wild and gay the blackbird’s song. | |
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| Now comes the bird of dusty hue, | 5 |
| The loud cuckoo, the summer-lover; | |
| Branchy trees are thick with leaves; | |
| The bitter, evil time is over. | |
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| Swift horses gather nigh | |
| Where half dry the river goes; | 10 |
| Tufted heather clothes the height; | |
| Weak and white the bogdown blows. | |
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| Corncrake sings from eve to morn, | |
| Deep in corn, a strenuous bard! | |
| Sings the virgin waterfall, | 15 |
| White and tall, her one sweet word. | |
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| Loaded bees with puny power | |
| Goodly flower-harvest win; | |
| Cattle roam with muddy flanks; | |
| Busy ants go out and in. | 20 |
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| Through the wild harp of the wood | |
| Making music roars the gale— | |
| Now it settles without motion, | |
| On the ocean sleeps the sail. | |
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| Men grow mighty in the May, | 25 |
| Proud and gay the maidens grow; | |
| Fair is every wooded height; | |
| Fair and bright the plain below. | |
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| A bright shaft has smit the streams, | |
| With gold gleams the water-flag; | 30 |
| Leaps the fish, and on the hills | |
| Ardor thrills the leaping stag. | |
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| Loudly carols the lark on high, | |
| Small and shy, his tireless lay, | |
| Singing in wildest, merriest mood, | 35 |
| Delicate-hued, delightful May. | |
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