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's choir,
Entreats thee, sweet Peggy, to hear thy true love's tale:
Lo, yonder she sitteth, her breast against a briar.

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 when 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, thou shalt be my summer's Queen."