THE WHITSTABLE MAY SONG
The first of May is garland day, we wish you a merry May,
We hope you like our May garland because it is May Day.
A branch of May we have brought you and at your door we stand,
It is but a sprout, but well budded out by the work of our poor hands.
This morning is the first of May, the primest of the year,
So people all, both great and small, we wish you a joyful year.
We have been wandering all the night and almost all this day
And now returning back again, we’ve bought you in May.
I have a purse upon my arm and drawn with a silken string
It only wants a few more pence to line it well within.
Come give us a cup of your sweet cream, or a jug of your fine beer,
And if we live to tarry the town, we’ll call another year.
The life of a man is but a span, he’s cut down like grass,
But here’s to the green leaf of the tree, as long as life shall last.
So why not do, as we have done, the very first day of May?
And from our parents we have come, to roam the woods so gay.
And now we bid you all adieu, and wish you all good cheer,
We call once more unto your house before another year.
God bless our land with power and might, send peace by night and day,
God send us peace in England, and send us a Joyful May.