Explore "May Day" by Edith Nesbit on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
"WILL you go a-maying, a-maying, a-maying, / Come and be my Queen of May and pluck the may with me? / The fields are full of daisy buds and new lambs playing, / The bird is on the nest, dear, the blossom's on the tree."
"If I go with you, if I go a-maying, / To be your Queen and wear my crown this May-day bright, / Hand in hand straying, it must be only playing, / And playtime ends at sunset, and then good-night.
"For I have heard of maidens who laughed and went a-maying, / Went out queens and lost their crowns and came back slaves.
I will be no young man's slave, submitting and obeying, / Bearing chains as those did, even to their graves."
"If you come a-maying, a-straying, a-playing, / We will pluck the little flowers, enough for you and me; / And when the day dies, end our one day's playing, / Give a kiss and take a kiss and go home free. "