When Meggan plucked the thorny rose,
And when May pulled the brier,
Half the birds would swoop to see,

Half the beasts draw nigher;
Half the fishes of the streams

Would dart up to admire :

But when Margaret plucked a flag-flower,
Or poppy hot aflame,

All the beasts and all the birds

And all the fishes came

To her hand more soft than snow.

Strawberry leaves and May-dew
In brisk morning air,

Strawberry leaves and May-dew
Make maidens fair.

"I go for strawberry-leaves,"
Meggan said one day :

"Fair Margaret can bide at home,
But you come with me, May;
Up the hill and down the hill,
Along the winding way,
You and I are used to go."

So these two fair sisters

Went with innocent will Up the hill and down again,

And round the homestead hill: While the fairest sat at home,

Margaret like a queen,
Like a blush-rose, like the moon
In her heavenly sheen,
Fragrant-breathed as milky cow
Or field of blossoming bean,
Graceful as an ivy bough

Born to cling and lean;

Thus she sat to sing and sew.

When she raised her lustrous eyes
A beast peeped at the door;
When she downward cast her eyes
A fish gasped on the floor;
When she turned away her eyes
A bird perched on the sill,
Warbling out its heart of love,
Warbling, warbling still,

With pathetic pleadings low.

Light-foot May with Meggan
Sought the choicest spot,
Clothed with thyme-alternate grass:
Then, while day waxed hot,
Sat at ease to play and rest,
A gracious rest and play;
The loveliest maidens near or far,
When Margaret was away,
Who sat at home to sing and sew.

Sun-glow flushed their comely cheeks,

Wind-play tossed their hair,
Creeping things among the grass
Stroked them here and there;
Meggan piped a merry note,
A fitful, wayward lay,

While shrill as bird on topmost twig
Piped merry May;
Honey-smooth the double flow.

Sped a herdsman from the vale,
Mounting like a flame,

All on fire to hear and see

With floating locks he came. Looked neither north nor south,

Neither east nor west,

But sat him down at Meggan's feet
As love-bird on his nest,

And wooed her with a silent awe,

With trouble not expressed;

She sang the tears into his eyes,
The heart out of his breast:
So he loved her, listening so.

She sang the heart out of his breast,
The words out of his tongue;
Hand and foot and pulse he paused
Till her song was sung.

Then he spoke up from his place
Simple words and true :
"Scanty goods have I to give,

Scanty skill to woo;

But I have a will to work,

And a heart for you :
Bid me stay or bid me go."

Then Meggan mused within herself:

"Better be first with him,

Than dwell where fairer Margaret sits, Who shines my brightness dim, Forever second where she sits,

However fair I be:

I will be lady of his love,

And he shall worship me;

I will be lady of his herds

And stoop to his degree,

At home where kids and fatlings grow."

Sped a shepherd from the height

Headlong down to look,

(White lambs followed, lured by love Of their shepherd's crook):

He turned neither east nor west,
Neither north nor south,

But knelt right down to May, for love
Of her sweet-singing mouth;
Forgot his flocks, his panting flocks
In parching hillside drouth;
Forgot himself for weal or woe.

Trilled her song and swelled her song
With maiden coy caprice
In a labyrinth of throbs,

Pauses, cadences;

Clear-noted as a dropping brook,

Soft-noted like the bees,
Wild-noted as the shivering wind
Forlorn through forest trees:
Love-noted like the wood-pigeon
Who hides herself for love,
Yet cannot keep her secret safe,
But cooes and cooes thereof :
Thus the notes rang loud or low.

He hung breathless on her breath;
Speechless, who listened well;
Could not speak or think or wish
Till silence broke the spell.

Then he spoke, and spread his hands
Pointing here and there: