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A May Garland / This Morning Is the First of May

[ Roud 305 ; VWML RoudFS/S154323 ; Mudcat 120532 ; trad.]

Balkan-style singing group from Keighley, Sharon and the Students sang the May Song in 1985 on their privately issued cassette The Better Land.

Lisa Knapp sang A May Garland in 2012 on her EP Hunt the Hare (A Branch of May Volume One) and in 2017 on her CD Till April is Dead: A Garland of May. She noted:

This Morning Is the First of May, collected by Fred Hamer from Miss May Johnson [VWML RoudFS/S154323] .

I think a bewitching aspect of most May carols is the verse

A man a man his life’s a span
He flourishes like a flower
He’s here today and gone tomorrow
He’s gone all in an hour

The darkest of threads underlying such a pretty little melody and form—a paradoxical pairing which epitomises much I love about folk song, folklore and fairy stories.

Lyrics

Sharon and the Students sing the May Song

This morning is the first of May,
The bright time of the year,
If I should live and tarry well (×3)
I’ll call another year.

Chorus (twice after each verse):
So ladies all both great and small
I wish you a joyful May.

Now step into your dairy for
A jug of your best cream.
A jug of cream I do not mean (×3)
But a jug of your brown ale.

The clock strikes one, I must be gone,
No longer can I stay.
So come downstairs, my pretty (fair) maid (×3)
And view a garland gay.

A garland gay we’ve brought you here
Before your door it stands.
It’s well set out and spread about (×3)
By the work of our Lord’s hand.

Now take the Bible in your hand
And read the Scripture through.
And when the day of judgement comes (×3)
The Lord will remember you.

Lisa Knapp sings May Garland

This morning is the first of May,
The bright time of the year,
𝄆 And if I live and tarry here
I’ll call another year. 𝄇

The fields and meadows are so green
As green as any leaf,
𝄆 Our heavenly father waters them
With his heavenly dew so sweet. 𝄇

A man, a man, his life’s a span,
He flourishes like a flower;
𝄆 He’s here today and gone tomorrow,
He’s gone all in an hour. 𝄇

I have a purse upon my arm,
It’s drawn with silken string,
𝄆 And all it wants is a little money
To line it well within. 𝄇

The clock struck one, I must be gone,
I can no longer stay,
𝄆 So come downstairs you pretty maids all
And look at my branch of May. 𝄇