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The Lark in the Morning

[ Roud 151 / Song Subject MAS63 ; Master title: The Lark in the Morning ; Ballad Index ShH62 ; VWML RVW2/2/99 , SBG/1/2/539 , CJS2/10/2193 ; Bodleian Roud 151 ; GlosTrad Roud 151 ; Wiltshire 931 ; Folkinfo 155 ; DT LARKMORN ; Mudcat 28576 ; trad.]

Bob Copper: A Song for Every Season The Copper Family: The Copper Family Song Book John Holloway, Joan Black: Later English Broadside Ballads Maud Karpeles: Cecil Sharp’s Collection of English Folk Songs The Crystal Spring Frank Kidson: Traditional Tunes A Garland of English Folk-Songs Roy Palmer: Folk Songs Collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams Everyman’s Book of English Country Songs Frank Purslow: Marrow Bones James Reeves: The Idiom of the People Steve Roud, Julia Bishop: The New Penguin Book of English Folk Songs Cecil J. Sharp: One Hundred English Folksongs Elizabeth Stewart, Alison McMorland: Up Yon Wide and Lonely Glen Alfred Williams: Folk-Songs of the Upper Thames

Ralph Vaughan Williams collected the tune and the first verse of The Lark in the Morning on 24 April 1904 from Mrs Harriet Verrall, of Monk’s Gate, Horsham in Sussex [VWML RVW2/2/99] and published in the Folk Song Journals. Roy Palmer added further verses from a printed broadside when he included it in his book Folk Songs Collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Lily Cook from North Chailey, Sussex, sang The Lark in the Morning to Bob Copper in her cottage on 10 September 1954. This BBC recording was included in 2012 on the Topic anthology of songs by southern English traditional singers, You Never Heard So Sweet (The Voice of the People Series Volume 21).

Isla Cameron sang The Lark in the Morning in 1956 on her Tradition album Through Bushes and Briars.

Paddy Tunney sang The Lark in the Morning as the title track of the 1956 Tradition anthology of folk songs and dances from the Irish countryside, The Lark in the Morning. He also sang it in a recording made by Bill Leader on his 1966 Topic album The Irish Edge. This track was also included in 1998 on the Topic anthology Come All My Lads That Follow the Plough (The Voice of the People Series Volume 5). Seán O’Boyle noted on the 166 album:

This lively snatch of song was a great favourite of Paddy’s grandfather, Michael Gallagher from Donegal. Though the tune is undoubtedly Irish, the words are obviously English in origin, for it is true to say that The Lark in the Morning may be safely taken as a symbol of the Ploughboy, as he is represented in English folksong:

Up with the lark at the break of day
He guides his speedy plough.

Roger the ploughman and Susan the milkmaid, mentioned in the song, are strangers in Ireland—but they are welcome. The tune, which is highly ornamented by Paddy, is in the Re mode.

Bob and Ron Copper sang The Lark in the Morning in a recording made by Peter Kennedy that was released in 1963 on their EFDSS LP Traditional Songs From Rottingdean. All tracks from this LP were included in 2001 on the Copper Family’s Topic anthology Come Write Me Down. This album’s booklet noted:

A very well-known song. Most of the major English collectors noted versions, and it was also reported from Scotland and Northern Ireland and once or twice in America. Many of the nineteenth century broadside printers put out versions, but the earliest known printed text is in an Edinburgh chapbook dated 1778 and it could be even earlier. The broadside versions tend to be longer than those collected from singers, and their titles, such as The Plowman’s Glory, focused attention on the main theme of extolling the virtues of the ploughboy, but most traditional versions give the evocative ‘Lark in the Morning’ verse pride of place.

Paddie Bell sang The Lark in the Morning on her 1968 album I Know Where I’m Going.

The Johnstons sang The Lark in the Morning in 1968 on their eponymous Transatlantic album The Johnstons. This track was also included in 1997 on the Castle anthlogy New Electric Muse II. They noted on their album:

A Northern Ireland song with a strong English influence. The tact and subtle innuendo in the folk tradition is obvious here and makes this superior to cruder versions.

Dave and Toni Arthur recorded The Lark in the Morning in 1968/9 as the title track of their Topic album The Lark in the Morning. They noted:

This rural idyll, well known throughout Great Britain and Ireland, originated in the early eighteenth century, a period of comparative well being on the land, and a great time for the production of sweet mild songs, inspired by a deep love for the soil. During the nineteenth century this love became tempered with bitterness and dissatisfaction with the low wages, long hours, and the misuse of the land. These grievances resulted in the formation of the agricultural unions in the 1870s, led by such as Joseph Arch, lay preacher and champion hedgecutter, who wrote an ironic grace which gained great popularity during the nineteenth century: O heavenly Father bless us and keep us all alive; there are ten of us for dinner and food for only five.

If the country was not so idyllic during the nineteenth century, nevertheless songs of this type went on being sung. Perhaps the cowmen and ploughboys were trying to convince themselves that things were not really so bad, and to make the most of a gray life with the help of a song, a mug of beer, and the old clay pipe. The words here are from Alfred Williams’ Folk-Songs of the Upper Thames. The air, which we learnt from our friend Barry Dransfield, is a common Irish one, used by Paddy Tunney and others.

Steeleye Span recorded The Lark in the Morning in 1971 for their second album, Please to See the King. Their version has quite different words, as collected by Ralph Vaughan Williams from Mr Kemp of Herongate, Essex, on 26 October 1904 [VWML RVW2/2/171] ; they start with a dialogue between a woman named Floro and a shepherd and use the “lark” verse as chorus. Steeleye sang this live on the BBC radio programme “Peel’s Sunday Concert” on 15 September 1971. This programme was included as bonus CD on the 2006 reissue of Ten Man Mop or Mr Reservoir Butler Rides Again. Another live recording from The Forum, London on 7 September 1995 was released on the CD The Journey. And a further live version recorded in December 1996 was included as a bonus track on the 1998 CD reissue of their album Sails of Silver.

This video shows Steeleye Span in John Pearse’s ATV programme “Music Room” in 1970:

Maddy Prior sang The Lark in the Morning long years later on her Christmas tour of 1999; this recording was included in 2000 on her Park CD and DVD, Ballads & Candles. She recorded it in 2001 for her Park album Arthur the King. This track was later included on the Park Records anthology Women in Folk and on the Maddy Prior anthology Collections: A Very Best of 1995 to 2005. Another live recording from the Theatre Royal, Winchester on 22 October 2006 was released in 2007 on her Park CD+DVD The Quest. Maddy Prior noted :

This deceptively simple song has been in my repertoire longer than any other folk song. It has that total Arcadian sweep that puts it in the style of tune that Vaughan Williams loved and used in his own writing, and is a delight to sing.

Tony Rose sang The Lark in the Morning with double tracked voices on his 1971 LP Under the Greenwood Tree. His quite different verses were collected by Hammond. Tony Rose commented in his album sleeve notes:

The Lark in the Morning is another widespread song extolling the perks which were supposed to accompany the rural life. It’s not really surprising that songs of this kind were common, because in the majority of cases the life itself was a hard one. This treatment is jointly inspired by two fine pairs of singing brothers—the Coppers and the Everlys.

The Blue Water Folk sang Lark in the Morning in 1972 on their Folk Heritage album All the Good Times. This track was also included in 2022 on the story of Folk Heritage Records anthology Before the Day Is Done.

The Taverners sang The Lark in the Morning in 1973 on their Trailer album Blowing Sands.

The Yetties sang The Lark in the Morning in 1974 on the Argo anthology The World of the Countryside.

Alva sang The Lark in the Morning in 2003 on their Beautiful Jo album The Bells of Paradise. They noted:

Ralph Vaughan Williams collected this song from Mrs Kemp of Herongate, Essex, in 1904. We noticed the similarity between this and Thomas D’Urfey’s poem on the theme of parting at dawn, Strephon and Chloris: or, The Coy Shepherd and Kind Shepherdess (late 17^th century). The first verse of Mrs Kemp’s song is identical to the words of Chloris as she tries to entice her unwilling shepherd to lie with her a little longer. We could not resist including another verse of D’Urfey’s poem, which becomes our verse 7.

Charlotte Greig sang The Lark in the Morn on her 2005 album Quite Silent.

Stanley Robertson sang The Lark in a c.2005 recording on his posthumous 2009 Elphinstone Institute antholohy The College Boy. Thomas A. McKean noted:

Stanley liked to sing this song in tribute to his cousin, Elizabeth Stewart, whose heartfelt performance of it he often praised. The Lark in the Morn(ing), or The Pretty Ploughboy is one of a family of songs in praise of the high-status labourers of the farmworking world, no doubt many of them made by ploughboys themselves. This one is most often found in England, but there are some Scottish and Irish versions, along with a few from the USA (e.g. in the Frank C. Brown Collection). Though Stanley called the song The Lark, he uses the Scots ‘laverock’ (2.1).

Martin and Shan Graebe sang The Lark in the Morn in 2008 on their WildGoose CD Dusty Diamonds. They noted:

SB-G Manuscript Ref. P2, 258 (255). The words of this version of Lark in the Morn were collected from Sam Gilbert, the 81 year old landlord of the Falcon Inn at Mawgan in Pydar, Cornwall [VWML SBG/1/2/539] . We have coupled Gilbert’s text with the wonderful tune that Baring-Gould heard from Robert Hard of South Brent, one of the first men that Baring-Gould collected songs from.

Jackie Oates recorded Lark in the Morning in 2008 for her second album, The Violet Hour. This track was also included on the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2009 compilation. And she sang this song in 2010 on The Imagined Village’s CD Empire and Love. This video shows Jackie Oates in a Songs From the Shed April Fools session in 2010, with Jim Causley and The Scottish Falsetto Puppet Theatre:

Craig Morgan Robson sang The Lark in the Morning on their 2009 CD Hummingbird’s Feather. They noted:

A charming though totally unrealistic picture of country life, with an irresistibly joyous tune and refrain. It was collected by the Hammond Brothers from George Roper of Charlton St. Mary, Dorset, in 1905. The “pretty ploughboy” seems to have a lot going for him, leading us to wonder what life was like for the less attractive ploughboy.

Magpie Lane learned The Lark in the Morning from Roy Palmer’s book and recorded it for their 2011 CD The Robber Bird. Andy Turner used this track as the 21 April 2012 entry of his project A Folk Song a Week.

Tom and Barbara Brown sang The Lark in the Morn in 2014 on their WildGoose CD of songs collected by Cecil Sharp from Captains Lewis and Vickery in Minehead, Somerset, Just Another Day. They noted:

A widespread song of rural dalliance, and a battle of the sexes instead of nations—although there doesn’t really seem to be much conflict. Lewis’s tune [VWML CJS2/10/2193] encompassed a full two octaves, but Tom can’t manage that so he compromises. If you want to know the full tune—listen to the concertina!

Lisa Knapp sang Lark in the Morning on her 2017 CD Till April Is Dead. She noted:

From a recording of one of my favourite singers, Paddy Tunney.

This recording is so evocative of early summer full of green with its nesting birds and rural setting, all this innocence around such euphemistic musings belies its playful subject. Pete [Flood] plays wooden spoons on here (castanet style) which are used in Turkish Karagoz puppet theatre.

Quinie sang The Lark in the Morning on her 2018 cassette Buckie Prins.

Eggclab 7 rewrote The Lark in the Morning for the 2021 Landworkers’ Alliance anthology Stand Up Now.

Hannah Sanders and Ben Savage sang Lark in the Morning in 2022 on their Topic CD Ink of the Rosy Morning. Hannah Sanders noted:

Another sweetly euphemistic English song. Our arrangement is inspired by the bright and swift flight of the skylarks in the fields around where we live in Cambridgeshire.

Allister Thompson sang The Lark in the Morning on his 2024 album Ancestors.

Lyrics

Lily Cook sings The Lark in the Morning

The lark in the morning she rises from her nest,
She mounts into the air with the dew on her breast.
’Twas down in yonder meadow I carelessly did stray,
For there’s no-one like the ploughboy in the merry month of May.

When his day’s work is over and then what will he do?
He’ll fly into the country his way to go,
And with his pretty sweetheart he’ll whistle and he’ll sing,
And at night he’ll return to his old home again.

And when he returns from his wake unto the town,
The meadows they are mowed and the grass it is cut down.
The nightingale she whistles upon the hawthorn spray
And the moon is a-shining upon the new-mown hay.

So here’s luck to the ploughboys wherever they may be.
They’ll take a winsome lass to sit on their knee,
And with a jug of beer, boys, they’ll whistle and they’ll sing,
For the ploughboy is as happy as a prince or a king.

Bob and Ron Copper sing The Lark in the Morning

The lark in the morning she arises from her nest
And she ascends all in the air with the dew upon her breast,
And with the pretty ploughboy she’ll whistle and she’ll sing,
And at night she’ll return to her own nest again.

When his day’s work is over, oh, what then will he do?
Perhaps then into some rude country wake he’ll go,
And with his pretty sweetheart he’ll dance and he’ll sing,
And at night he’ll return with his love back again.

And as they returned from the wake unto the town,
The meadows they are mowed and the grass it is cut down.
The nightingale she whistles upon the hawthorn spray,
And the moon it is a-shining upon the new-mown hay.

Good luck unto the ploughboys, wherever they may be.
They will take a winsome lass for to sit upon their knee,
And with a jug of beer, boys, they’ll whistle and they’ll sing,
And the ploughboy is as happy as a prince or a king.

Paddy Tunney sings The Lark in the Morning

The lark in the morning she rises off her nest,
And goes up in the air with the dew on her breast.
Like a jolly ploughboy she whistles and she sings,
And comes home in the evening with the dew on her wings.

Roger the ploughboy he is a bonnie blade,
He goes whistling and singing by yonder lone shade.
He met with dark-eyed Susan, she’s handsome I declare,
And she’s far more enticing than the birds of the air.
He met with dark-eyed Susan, she’s handsome I declare,
And he bought for her some ribbons for to roll round her hair.

(lilted chorus)

Steeleye Span sing The Lark in the Morning

“Lay still my fond shepherd and don’t you rise yet
It’s a fine dewy morning and besides, my love, it is wet.”

“Oh let it be wet my love and ever so cold
I will rise my fond Floro and away to my fold.”

“Oh no, my bright Floro, it is no such thing
It’s a bright sun a-shining and the lark is on the wing.”

Chorus:
Oh the lark in the morning she rises from her nest
And she mounts in the air with the dew on her breast
And like the pretty ploughboy she’ll whistle and sing
And at night she will return to her own nest again

When the ploughboy has done all he’s got for to do
He trips down to the meadows where the grass is all cut down.

Chorus

Tony Rose sings The Lark in the Morning

As I was walking one morning in the spring
I met a fair damsel, so sweetly she did sing.
And as we was a-walking she unto me did say,
“Now there’s no life like the ploughboy’s all in the month of May.”

Oh the lark in the morning she rises from her nest
And flies all up into the air with the dew upon her breast.
And like the pretty ploughboy she’ll whistle and she’ll sing
And at night she will return to her home once again.

When the ploughboy has done all that he has got to do,
Perhaps unto the country way go walking he will go.
And there with his lassie he will drink and he will sing
And at night they will return to their home once again.

And as they return from the wake of the town,
The meadows being mown and the grass it being cut down;
If they by chance should tumble all on the new-mown hay,
Oh, it’s “Kiss me now or never,” this pretty maid would say.

And it’s twenty long weeks being over and being past,
Her mother did ask her the reason why she thickened around the waist.
“Oh, it was the pretty ploughboy,” the damsel she did say,
“Who caused me for to tumble all along the new-mown hay.”

So good luck to the ploughboy wherever he may be
Who loves to take his lassie and sit her on his knee,
With a jug of the good strong beer he’ll whistle and he’ll sing
For the ploughboy is as happy as a prince or as a king.

Stanley Robertson sang The Lark

As I gaed out a-walking one fine day in spring
I overheard a ploughboy an sae sweetly he did sing
And as he was a-singing these words I heard him say
O there’s nae life like a ploughboy in the merry month o May.

Noo the laverock rises early fae her bower in her nest
An she’ll follow the plooboy wi the dew upon her breast
And like the young ploughboy she will whistle an she’ll sing
And at night she will return tae her nest once again.

When his day’s work it is over, what he has to do
Tae some lovely, lonely country walk he will surely go through
And if he meets a pretty maiden he will whistle and he’ll sing
And at night he will return her tae her house once again.

When he rises in the mornin for tae follow his team
The bonnie young ploughboy sae neat an sae trim
And if he kisses a pretty maiden he will make her his wife
An she’ll have her young ploughboy for the rest o her life.

As I gaed out a-walking one fine day in spring
I overheard a ploughboy an sae sweetly he did sing
And as he gaed a-walking these words I heard him say
O there’s nae life like the ploughboy in the merry month o May.

Lisa Knapp sing The Lark in the Morning

O the lark in the morning she rises off her nest,
She goes whistling and singing with the dew all on her breast.
Like a jolly ploughboy she whistles and she sings
She comes home in the evening with the dew all on her wings.

Roger the ploughboy he’s a bonnie blade,
He goes whistling and singing down by yon green glade.
𝄆 He’s met with dark-eyed Susan, she’s handsome I declare,
She is far more enticing than the birds of the air. 𝄇

As he was coming home one evening from town,
With the meadows being green, the grass just cut down.
As he should chance to stumble all in the new mown hay,
“It’s love me now or never,” this bonnie lass did say.

So good luck to the ploughboys wherever they may be
That takes the sweet maidens to sit her on their knee,
[With a jug of strong porter you’ll whistle and you’ll say,?]
There’s no life like a ploughboy’s in the merry month of May.