Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Lady Mary Montgomerie Currie b. 184–

A May Song

A LITTLE while my love and I,

Before the mowing of the hay,

Twin’d daisy-chains and cowslip-balls,

And caroll’d glees and madrigals,

Before the hay, beneath the may,

My love (who lov’d me then) and I.

For long years now my love and I

Tread sever’d paths to varied ends;

We sometimes meet, and sometimes say

The trivial things of every day,

And meet as comrades, meet as friends,

My love (who lov’d me once) and I.

But never more my love and I

Will wander forth, as once, together,

Or sing the songs we us’d to sing

In spring-time, in the cloudless weather;

Some chord is mute that us’d to ring,

Some word forgot we us’d to say

Amongst the may, before the hay,

My love (who loves me not) and I.