C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

Songs and Their Settings: Love in Springtime

IT was a lover and his lass,

With a hey, and a ho, and a hey nonino,

That o’er the green cornfield did pass

In the springtime, 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 springtime, 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 our life was but a flower,

In the springtime, 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 springtime, the only pretty ring time,

When birds do sing, hey ding a ding, ding:

Sweet lovers love the spring.